[1] “Pandora [Papers, VD] illustrates again the importance of tax transparency. Commission to come in coming months with directives on shell companies, publication of effective tax rates and exchange of tax rulings for wealthy individuals”. This was the first reaction of the European Commission (EC) by Benjamin Angel (Director at the DG Taxation and Customs…

The DAC8 proposal published on 8 December 2022 represents the most recent effort of the European Commission to enhance administrative cooperation in the tax field. It aims to include crypto-assets under the existing EU framework for the exchange of information. This way, the Commission’s work is intended to address the challenges associated with the increasing…

Luisa Scarcella (DigiTax Centre at University of Antwerp; Member of the Working Party on Tax & Legal Matters) The recent rise in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets accompanied by the rapid growth of crypto-assets providers has caught the attention of the EU regulator once again. Due to the heterogeneity in the…

HMRC v Embiricos [2020] UKUT 370 (TC) reflects a common issue that arises in connection with tax investigations or audits of internationally mobile individuals. Mr Embiricos  filed his tax returns on the basis that he was resident, but not domiciled in the UK. On that basis, he was entitled to the remittance basis of taxation….

Council Directive (EU) 2018/822 (generally known as DAC 6) expressly provides for reporting obligations concerning cross-border arrangements that present an indication of a potential risk of tax avoidance. The Annex to the Directive lists the hallmarks triggering reporting obligations, which include the category of specific hallmarks concerning transfer pricing (Category E). The first of these…

In the 1980s, a new dimension to profit shifting was introduced in the United States through the establishment of Onshore Offshore Banks. New legislation (called the International Banking Facility (IBF)) allowed banks in the US to maintain two separate sets of accounts. One set capturing all transactions with residents of USA which would be subject…

In June 2017, the European Commission published its proposal on transparency rules for tax planning by intermediaries and certain taxpayers (the Commission proposal). The Commission proposal was amended multiple times, before it was formally adopted as Directive 2018/822 (DAC6) on 25 May 2018. DAC6 requires Member States to put in place, by 31 December 2019,…