Back to article list

Latest news - June 2018

Last month’s tax and legal news in a few sentences.

  • The new mandatory disclosure requirements for intermediaries and relevant taxpayers will enter into force on 25 June 2018, i.e. twenty days after their publication in the Official Journal on 5 June 2018. These are the most recent amendments to the Directive on Administrative Cooperation in the Field of Taxation (“DAC 6”), which must be implemented by member states before 31 December 2019 and which will apply from 1 July 2020. Intermediaries and relevant taxpayers will also be required to disclose information on reportable cross-border arrangements, whose first step is to be implemented between 25 June 2018 and 1 July 2020. This information should be filed by 31 August 2020.
     
  • The Ministry of Finance issued a notification clarifying the accounting treatment of virtual currencies. According to the ministry, a virtual currency is viewed as a digital medium of value. While the motive for holding virtual currencies may vary among users, regardless of the holders’ intentions, the ministry recommends recording them as “special-type” inventories, reporting them in work in progress, finished products or goods in the balance sheet and disclosing information about the purpose of their acquisition and holding and the method of their valuation in the notes to the financial statements. 
     
  • The Ministry of Industry and Trade published an updated timetable of calls to participate in the Enterprise and Innovations for Competitiveness Operational Programme in 2018. According to the new timetable, other calls to take part in the popular Innovation and Potential Programmes, designed also for large businesses, are planned for autumn 2018. The timetable is available for downloading on the API’s or the ministry’s websites. 
     
  • The May ECOFIN Council (the council of European finance ministers) adopted DAC6 rules aimed to enhance transparency and prevent aggressive cross-border tax planning. DAC6 focuses on intermediaries such as tax advisors, accountants and lawyers who propose or recommend tax planning arrangements. According to DAC6, intermediaries will have to report arrangements that may be aggressive. The ministers also agreed on excluding the Bahamas and the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis from the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions, since these countries have committed themselves on a high political level to rectify areas that are problematic from an EU perspective.