EU finance ministers agreed at the ECOFIN meeting on 21 February on a draft directive to extend the hybrid mismatch rules to cover arrangements with non-EU countries from January 2020.
Simon Whitehead and Cristiana Bulbuc (Joseph Hage Aaronson) examine a recent European decision and its implications.
The OECD has released a group of documents that will form the basis of the peer review of country-by-country reporting (BEPS action 13) and the transparency framework for exchange of information on tax rulings (BEPS action 5). Action 13 and Action 5 are two of the four BEPS minimum standards.
The OECD has released an updated version of the BEPS action 4 report (interest deductions etc), which includes further guidance on: (1) the group ratio rule; and (2) country-specific approaches to risks posed by the banking and insurance sectors.
The amended administrative cooperation directive requiring member states automatically to exchange information on all new cross-border tax rulings came into force on 1 January 2017.
In December, a further 350 bilateral agreements for the automatic exchange of CRS information were activated, bringing the total to more than 1,300.
New Protocols have come into force, amending the existing double taxation arrangements with Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man with effect from 16 March 2016.
The Council of the EU has agreed a final draft of anti-money-laundering directive amendments for presentation to the EU Parliament. The amendments form part of the Commission’s action plan against terrorist financing, announced in February 2016.
The European Commission has set out its long-term plan for the customs union, with increased cooperation among member states to meet challenges such as terrorism and border security.