Reporting under DAC 6 postponed in the Czech Republic and other EU member states
The Czech Republic has utilised the option to postpone reporting duties arising from DAC 6 until the first months of 2021, as made possible by the COVID-19 DAC amendment adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, some EU member states did not choose this option, or to a limited extent. As a result, reporting deadlines will differ across Europe.
As we already informed you, at the beginning of the summer the Czech Republic announced that it will opt to postpone the deadlines for the first-time reporting of cross-border arrangements. On 25 September this year, a government decree extending these deadlines entered into effect, stipulating the following:
- For cross-border arrangements whose first steps were taken between 25 June 2018 and 30 June 2020, the reporting deadline has been extended to 1 March 2021.
- For cross-border arrangements made available or ready for implementation or whose first steps were taken between 1 July 2020 and 31 December 2020, the reporting deadline has been extended to 1 February 2021.
- For cross-border arrangements with respect of which aid, assistance or advice was provided by an auxiliary intermediary before 31 December 2020, the reporting deadline has been extended to 1 February 2021.
- For updates of data in selected schemes concerning changes that occurred before 31 December 2020, the reporting deadline has been extended to 30 April 2021.
Note: when setting the deadlines for reporting cross-border arrangements, weekends are also taken into account.
While the reporting duty under Czech law has been postponed, please note that some EU member states including Germany, Austria, and Finland did not opt for a postponement.
Germany has not postponed any deadlines at all; hence new cross-border arrangements originated after 1 July 2020 still have to be reported within 30 days. Arrangements whose first steps were taken before this date had to be reported by 31 August 2020. Finland also decided to observe the originally planned deadlines. Austria has effectively extended the deadlines by three months: failure to meet the reporting duty will be penalised only after 1 November 2020.
Businesses and corporate groups operating in other states as well as in the Czech Republic thus have to keep abreast of the different deadlines for first-time reporting, as per national legislations.