Revenue recently published a new Tax and Duty Manual to provide guidance on how the DAC 6 regime will operate. DAC 6 reporting is delayed until January 2021 at the earliest.

Council Directive (EU) 2018/822 (DAC 6) came into operation on 1 July. DAC 6 introduced mandatory automatic exchange of information on reportable cross-border tax arrangements. The regime is designed to capture cross-border tax transactions, that could potentially be used for aggressive tax planning.

DAC 6 places primary disclosure requirements with the intermediary. An intermediary is defined as any person with an EU nexus that “designs, markets, organises or makes available for implementation or manages the implementation of a reportable cross-border arrangement”. Or “knows or could be reasonably expected to know that they have undertaken to provide, directly or by means of other persons, aid, assistance or advice with respect to designing, marketing, organising, making available for implementation or managing the implementation of a reportable cross-border arrangement”.

Details of how the DAC 6 regime will operate are set out in Revenue’s manual Part 33-03-03. Reporting will commence in January 2021 at the earliest, as confirmed by Revenue on their Covid Hub.