European Commission proposes deferring of DAC 6 deadlines and postponement of other taxation rules
In connection with the Coronavirus pandemic, the European Commission has approved a proposal deferring certain deadlines for exchange of information among Member States on certain cross-border tax planning arrangements under the DAC 6 Directive by three months, and Member States will also have three additional months to exchange information on reportable financial accounts. The Commission has decided to postpone the entry into application of the VAT e-commerce package by 6 months.
Reporting duty under DAC 6
The Commission proposes the following changes:
- Deferring the deadline for the first exchange of information among the Member States from 31 October 2020 to 31 January 2021.
- Deferring the start of the 30-day period for notification of cross-border arrangements by tax entities relating to the period between 1 July and 30 September 2020, where the 30-day period for notification of all such arrangements will commence only on 1 October 2020.
- Deferring the deadline for notification of cross-border arrangements where the first step was made between 25 June 2018 and 30 June 2020 by three months, i.e. from 31 August to 30 November 2020
Exchange of information on financial accounts
The Commission proposes to defer the deadline for exchange of information on reportable financial accounts (CRS/GATCA reporting under DAC 2) by three months, i.e. until 31 December 2020. The US tax administration (IRC) has already deferred the deadline for the FATCA information exchange for 2019 until the end of 2020.
Both these deferrals are relevant for the exchange of information between the Czech Republic and foreign tax administrations. The reporting deadline for Czech financial institutions follows from the International Exchange of Information Act and has thus not been deferred automatically in this regard. This means that Czech financial institutions will be required to submit their CRS/GATCA and FATCA reports by 30 July 2020 unless the Ministry of Finance defers the deadline accordingly.
Given the uncertain development of the COVID-19 pandemic, the proposed initiative allows the Commission to defer the deadline for the submission and exchange of information (even under DAC 6) once more by up to three months.
E-commerce
The Commission further proposes postponement of the entry into application of the VAT e-commerce package by 6 months. The rules would thus apply from 1 July 2021.
The Commission proposals must be approved by ECOFIN and the European Parliament, and only then can they be reflected in the Czech legislation. Laws implementing DAC 6 and the new e-commerce rules have yet to be adopted and the changes will thus have to be introduced by virtue of Deputies’ motions or by special regulations.