EU finance ministers on October 14 agreed to extend mandatory automatic exchange of information between tax administrations to interest, dividends, and other income, and to account balances and sales proceeds from financial assets.
The agreement amends directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of direct taxation, making it consistent with the new global standard on automatic exchange of information developed by the OECD and endorsed by the G20. See, release.
Update: The European Commission on October 15 published more information on the agreement to expand the directive on administrative cooperation. The Commission states that all Member State tax authorities will automatically exchange information with each other pursuant to the new agreement beginning 2017 except for Austria, which was granted an additional year to apply the new rules. Austria also committed to consult with industry to see if it would be possible for it to start applying the wider scope of automatic exchange earlier than 2018. The Commission also said it would consider replacing the Savings Directive with the revised directive on administrative cooperation. See, release.
