Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes

1. S. 305Introduction

On 2 February 2009, the European Commission submitted a proposal for a Council Directive concerning mutual assistance for the recovery of claims relating to taxes, duties and other measures, to revise Council Directive 1976/308/EEC of 15 March 1976. After a year of negotiations, the Council adopted the new Council Directive 2010/24/EU on mutual assistance for the recovery of claims on 16 March 2010.

The Commission of the European Union elucidated the grounds for and the objectives of the proposal for Council Directive 2010/24/EU of 16 March 2010 as follows:

‘Arrangements for mutual recovery assistance were first set out in Council Directive 1976/308/EEC of 15 March 1976, as codified by Council Directive 2008/55/EC of 26 May 2008, on mutual assistance for the recovery of claims relating to certain levies, duties, taxes and other measures. This instrument, however, has proved insufficient to meet the requirements of the internal market as it has evolved over the last 30 years.

As evidenced by the case law of the Court of Justice, an efficient cooperation and recovery system in the field of taxation proves to be one of the cornerstones of the internal market, in that it al...