European Commission demands that 5 Member States implement key EU rules against tax evasion

ec.europa.eu

Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy and Poland have not informed the Commission of the transposition of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation into their national legislation

20 June 2013 the Commission has sent Reasoned Opinions to Belgium, Greece, Finland (Province of Aland), Italy and Poland asking them to notify the transposition of the Directive on administrative cooperation into national law.

The Directive on Administrative Cooperation aims to increase transparency, improve information exchange and tighten cross-border cooperation: fundamental tools for fighting tax evasion. Member States had a legal obligation to start applying this Directive from 1 January 2013.

In the absence of a satisfactory response within two months, the Commission may refer these 5 Member States to the EU’s Court of Justice.

On 12 June 2013, the Commission proposed to amend the Directive to further expand the scope of automatic information exchange to other categories of income and capital (see IP/13/530).