In brief

On 26 June 2020, the new Council Directive (EU) 2020/876 of 24 June 2020 amending Directive 2011/16/EU (commonly referred to as the DAC) to address the urgent need to defer certain time limits for the filing and exchange of information in the field of taxation because of the COVID-19 pandemic (the "new EU Directive"), was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. This new EU Directive entered into force on 27 June 2020 i.e the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

In detail

New DAC6 filing deadlines

Based on the new EU Directive, each EU Member State is allowed on an optional basis to postpone DAC6 deadlines as follows. We note these are the same dates as we set out in our newsletter N-15-2020:

  • for filing reportable cross-border arrangements (RCBAs) the first step of which was implemented between 25 June 2018 and 30 June 2020 the filing deadline is by 28 February 2021;
  • for filing RCBAs where the triggering event for the reporting took place between 1 July 2020 and 31 December 2020, the period of 30 days for filing information shall begin on 1 January 2021;
  • for filing marketable RCBAs the first periodic report shall be made by the intermediary by 30 April 2021
  • the first automatic exchange of information between EU Member States, may be delayed but shall take place no later than 30 April 2021;

The new EU Directive additionally provides for the possibility to postpone the deadlines by another 3 months in case EU Member States have to implement lockdown measures.

The takeaway

Each EU Member State shall decide on whether they will implement the deadline postponement or stick with the original DAC6 timelines. Several EU Member States already announced their decision on the option to defer the DAC6 deadlines. The Cyprus tax authorities had already announced their intention to provide for any permissible deferrals and as such we expect Cyprus to implement the new EU Directive deadline postponements.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.