Upcoming report on EU exchange of tax information

On Tuesday 26 January 2021, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) will publish a special report on the system for the exchange of tax information in the EU.

ABOUT THE TOPIC

Money can be sent around the world at the click of a button and some taxpayers are tempted to keep investments hidden in offshore accounts. Until fairly recently, many countries and other territories openly operated as tax havens, tolerating secret bank accounts and shell companies and refusing to share information with other governments.

Since 2011, the Council has agreed a series of legislative initiatives enabling Member States to share tax information in a variety of ways. EU rules on the exchange of information and other forms of administrative cooperation allow Member States to gain access to the information they need to ensure that taxes are collected.

ABOUT THE AUDIT

The audit assesses the arrangements for the exchange of tax information in the EU, which determine effectiveness and the other tools of administrative cooperation. The auditors focus on the implementation of different amendments of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC) during the period from 2014 to 2019.

Based on their findings, the auditors will make a number of recommendations to both the European Commission and the Member States.

FOR PRESS

The report and press release will be published on the ECA website eca.europa.eu in 23 EU languages on Tuesday 26 January at 17:00 CET.

Embargoed copies can be requested at: [e-mail]

For interviews or statements, interested journalists can also contact ECA press office.

The ECA member responsible for this report is Ildikó Gáll-Pelcz.

The ECA's special reports set out the results of its audits of EU policies and programmes or management topics related to specific budgetary areas. The ECA selects and designs these audit tasks to be of maximum impact by considering the risks to performance or compliance, the level of income or spending involved, forthcoming developments and political and public interest.