The EC’s proposed reporting rules on cross-border tax planning

On 21 June 2017, the European Commission published proposals to extend mandatory disclosure and automatic exchange of information to cross-border tax planning arrangements bearing certain characteristics or ‘hallmarks’. Under the proposal, each member state will need to require ‘intermediaries’ (such as banks, accountants and lawyers) to report on such cross-border tax planning arrangements, so that the member state will be in a position to, and will be required to, exchange such information with other member states. As the accompanying press release explains, the purpose is ‘to tackle such aggressive tax planning by increasing scrutiny around the previously-unseen activities of tax planners and advisers’.