On July 5, 2016 the Irish Revenue published Revenue eBrief No. 65/16 - Revenue Arrangements for Implementing EU and OECD Exchange of Information Requirements In Respect of Tax Rulings. A new Revenue Operational Manual is attached to the Revenue eBrief.
The eBrief itself is very short and reads as follows:
“In 2015, two initiatives were adopted at international level to improve transparency in the area of tax rulings, as follows:
1. Council Directive (EU) 2015/2376 of 8 December 2015 which amends Directive 2011/16/EU as regards mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation; and
2. the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) framework for the compulsory spontaneous exchange of information in respect of rulings that was adopted as part of Action 5 of the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project.
These initiatives will apply to certain opinions issued by Revenue to companies and other entities in respect of taxes other than VAT, Customs Duties and Excise Duties. An overview of these new exchange of information requirements and details on how they will be implemented by Revenue are set out in a new Tax and Duty Manual (Part 35-00-01) The arrangements for implementing these initiatives apply from 1 April 2016.”
As stated above a Revenue Operational Manual titled: “Revenue Arrangements for Implementing EU and OECD Exchange of Information Requirements In Respect of Tax Rulings” is attached to the Revenue eBrief. The purpose of the manual is to set out Irish Revenue’s arrangements for implementing:
· Council Directive (EU) 2015/2376 of 8 December 2015 which amends Directive 2011/16/EU as regards mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation; and
· The OECD framework for the compulsory spontaneous exchange of information in respect of rulings that was adopted as part of Action 5 of the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project.
In this respect the Manual discusses a.o. the following subjects:
· Overview of Council Directive (EU) 2015/2376
o Scope
o Information to be Exchanged
o Timeframe for Exchange
o Full Text of Council Directive
· Overview of OECD Framework
o Scope
o Information to be Exchanged
o Timeframe for Exchange
o Full Text of OECD Framework
· Implementation by Revenue
o Application of Exchange of Information Requirements
o Opinions Issued from 1 April 2016 (re: OECD) and 1 January 2017 (re: EU)
o Look-back Element
o Information to be exchanged
o Additional Information To Be Provided When Requesting An Opinion
o Notification to Taxpayers
o Confidentiality of Taxpayer Information
Furthermore there are 3 annexes attached to the Manual:
Annex 1: Extract from Article 1 of Council Directive (EU) 2015/2376
Annex 2: Relevant Extracts from Council Directive 2011/16/EU
Annex 3: List of countries covered by OECD Framework with which we have a legal basis to spontaneously exchange information
Click here to be forwarded to the Manual as available on the website of the Irish Revenue, which will open in a new window. (The file is in the format of a downloadable Pdf-document)
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