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Content
Automatic exchange of information is the order of the day in international and European taxation. The agreed goal of policy makers is to create a global network of that will allow governments to ensure the effective collection of tax on income generated outside their borders without the need to resort to lengthy procedures for exchange of information on request in specific cases.
Sparked by the introduction of theUS Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)five years ago, governments around the world have worked to expand a system of automatic exchange of tax information. Last year, the OECD made the biggest step forward with the presentation of theCommon Reporting Standard, which will regulate global exchange of information in a concrete and harmonised manner. Further transparency of business activities and exchange of specific information will likely follow the completion of the BEPS project by the end of this year. In addition to these two standards, the EU is in the process of developing and implementing its own, yet more extensive standard of automatic exchange of information. Measures to that effect included the replacement of the Savings Directive with the extendedAdministrative Cooperation Directive, to be implemented by 1 January 2016, and its proposed expansion to coverautomatic exchange of tax rulings.
Successful implementation of all these measures should bring significant benefits for effective tax collection. However, differences between the various standards and inconsistencies in their implementation could result in a disproportionate increase of compliance costs as well as uncertainty for affected businesses. It is the purpose of this seminar to critically examine the implementation process and its impact on domestic financial industry, business and the tax administration as well as to explore the legal limits to unconstrained exchange of information.
 Speakers
M. Frederic BATARDY has more than 25 years’ experience in the financial sector in various roles, and was actively involved in the works of the ABBL and the EBF regarding the automatic exchange of information as Chairman of Working Groups in both. He has recently joined the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance.
Ms. Tracy A. KAYE is Professor of Law at Seton Hall School of Law, New Jersey. In 2014, Professor Kaye was the Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at the University of Luxembourg where she examined the implications of automatic exchange of information.
M. Gilles STURBOIS is a Director in the International and Corporate Tax department at ATOZ tax advisers where he regularly advises private banking and life insurance groups on, among other things, the impact of automatic exchange of information.
M. Matthias VALTA is a post-doctoral researcher (akademischer Rat) at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, where he focuses on domestic, European and international tax law and public law. In the winter term 2015/16 he lectures tax law at the University of Mainz, Germany.
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