site.btaBrussels Wants Sofia to Transpose New Transparency Rules for Exchange of Tax Rulings

Brussels, July 13 (BTA correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - The European Commission has decided to send reasoned opinions to Bulgaria, Cyprus and Portugal as these EU member states have failed to communicate the transposition of new measures on the automatic exchange of tax rulings between EU tax authorities.

Member states were supposed to transpose these measures by December 31, 2016. The new rules are designed to help clamp down on cross-border tax avoidance, aggressive tax planning and harmful tax competition and the first exchange of information between all EU tax authorities is supposed to take place by this September. The Commission has set the three countries a deadline of two months to reply.

In the absence of a satisfactory reply, the Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the EU. The Commission will assess whether the legislation of all member states complies with all requirements of the new rules.