Multilateral Cooperation in Tax Law

1. Historical Background

1.1. Exchange of Information in Tax Matters

The question of exchange of information and mutual assistance is not new to the world. All standard forms of exchange of information (including on-request, spontaneous, and automatic) had already been put in practice to some extent. However, in the last decade, the development of practice of exchange of information has significantly accelerated.

Before 2008, this topic was governed primarily by bilateral DTCs in line with Article 26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital. In the S. 326last decade, though, the international community experienced notable legal evolution in exchange of information and mutual assistance in tax matters. It is especially true for the EU which keeps making significant efforts in order to stay on the forefront of these developments.

Nowadays, Article 26 OECD MC is not used as a major legal source in the EU any longer. Exchange of tax information has, from 2011, been governed by directives instead (Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC)). These directives continuously grow in scale and scope. Also, in Europe and in many other jurisdictions, multilateral model competent auth...