What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

On 7 November 2024, the Council consulted the Parliament on a proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (DAC9).

The DAC9 proposal is closely linked with the 2022 Pillar 2 Directive, which aims to ensure a global minimum level of taxation for multinational enterprise groups (MNEs) and large-scale domestic groups in the EU.

The proposal aims at simplifying the filing process and reduce the administrative burden for MNEs with a view to their reporting obligations under the Pillar 2 Directive. For this purpose, it sets up a system for authorities to exchange information with each other and introduces a standard form, in line with that developed by the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework, which MNEs and large-scale domestic groups (LSDGs) will have to use to report certain tax-related information. These two elements are pre-requisites under Article 44 of the Pillar 2 Directive to apply the simplified rules for reporting obligations, which allows for a central filing by a designated entity on behalf of the entire group as opposed to individual filings by each constituent entity.

Without the DAC9 proposal, each company that forms part of an MNE would have to file a top-up tax information return in the country where it is based, which can be time‑consuming and complicated.

A swift adoption by the Council of this proposal is essential in order to ensure that the simplified rules for reporting obligations apply in time for the first reporting, which is due to take place by 30 June 2026. The Directive is expected to bring significant reductions of administrative burden, given that the central filing will only concern approximately 4,000 entities, as opposed to around 180,000 who would be required to do an individual filing in the absence of the Directive. DAC 9 is also a tool to guarantee a smoother implementation of Pillar II but will require time to be implemented. Further delays would not help in delivering Pillar II on time.

In view of the technical nature of the proposal and the urgency of adopting the proposal, your rapporteur proposes that Parliament approves the proposal without amendments pursuant to a simplified procedure without amendments (rule 52).