On 25 May 2018 the Council of the European Union adopted Directive 2018/822/EU as the sixth amendment to the Directive on Administrative Cooperation 2011/16/EU, commonly referred to as "DAC 6", which imposes extensive reporting requirements with respect to cross-border tax planning arrangements affecting at least one EU member state. DAC 6 is part of the continuing efforts of the EU Commission to clamp down on tax avoidance and evasion in the internal market by creating transparency regarding potentially aggressive cross-border tax planning schemes. The reporting obligations under DAC 6 are very broad and do not just apply to tax lawyers and therefore create a new set of compliance issues for the legal profession, in particular for lawyers involved in cross-border M&A transactions. Since DAC 6 only provides a general framework and gives the member states significant discretion regarding the transformation into national laws, it is useful for any practitioner who can be a potential "intermediary" to have an overview over the various laws and regulations in the EU member states.
