European Commission Adopts Tax Simplification Package: DAC Recast

3 minutes

On 24 June 2026, the European Commission adopted a tax simplification package to streamline compliance and enhance competitiveness of the Single Market. The package comprises the Taxation Omnibus (seeEuropean Commission Adopts Tax Simplification Package: Taxation Omnibus (24 June 2026)) and the Recast of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC). This package is part of the Commission's simplification agenda, aiming to reduce administrative burdens by at least 25% (35% for SMEs) by 2029 and is expected to save EU businesses around EUR 8 billion annually.

The DAC Recast (Proposal for a Council Directive on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (recast)) codifies the nine existing DAC directives into a single, coherent legal instrument, meant to improve legal certainty and clarity for businesses and tax administrations. The recast exercise concerns all DACs. The new measures included in the proposal concern DAC1, DAC4, DAC5, DAC6, DAC7 and DAC9. However, some provisions are of a general nature and will have an effect on all parts of the DAC.

The main simplification measures are the following:

  • The notification process for entities within the scope of DAC4 and DAC9 will be significantly streamlined. Currently each entity of an MNE group that is subject to DAC4 and DAC9 is required to notify the tax authority of the reporting entity for the group and by when the reporting will take place. The proposed measure will introduce a single notification covering DAC4/DAC9, where one entity will submit the notification on behalf of the entire group. There will be a standardized timeline and content for the notification, which will include the name of the reporting entity and where the reporting entity will report.
  • The requirement to report cross-border arrangements under DAC6 will be removed for entities that are subject to the Minimum Taxation Directive, provided that they fulfil certain conditions. For all other reporting persons, the generic Hallmarks A are deleted. In addition, the deadline for reporting is increased from 30 to 90 days and the starting point of the deadline is limited to when an arrangement is actually put into effect.
  • The activity threshold for reporting sales of goods under DAC7 is removed and the current monetary threshold is increased from EUR 2,000 to EUR 3,000.

Targeted improvements that aim to make the DAC framework more effective and efficient include:

  • for DAC1, the proposal strengthens the completeness of information exchanges by ensuring that information on all relevant categories of income and capital can be exchanged and by allowing tax administrations to make better use of information already available at national level; and
  • the proposal introduces a new Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) verification tool, which will improve the quality of exchanged information and significantly increase automatic matching rates.

According to the European Commission, these measures require limited implementation efforts for tax administrations. In the context of the DAC1 measure, tax administrations can obtain information in the most cost-effective manner through data sharing agreements with other authorities as this is already held by public authorities at the governmental level. In the context of the TIN measure, tax administrations will be required to implement limited adaptation costs to connect to the TIN verification infrastructure.

The DAC proposal will further be submitted to the European Parliament for consultation and the Council of the European Union for adoption. If the proposal is adopted as published, frontloaded simplification measures should be implemented by 2028. The rest of the measures, including those that aim to improve the effective functioning of the Directive, should be implemented by 2030.

Report from our correspondent Oana Popa, Principal Associate, IBFD. Follow our reporting on this via our daily Tax News Service (subscribers only).

Further documents are available here:

Related

European Commission Adopts Tax Simplification Package: Taxation Omnibus

The European Commission has adopted a tax simplification package to streamline compliance and enhance competitiveness of the Single Market. The package comprises the Taxation Omnibus and the Recast of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC) (see European Commission Adopts Tax Simplification Package: DAC Recast (24 June 2026). This package is part of the Commission's simplification agenda, aiming to reduce administrative burdens by at least 25% (35% for SMEs) by 2029 and is expected to save EU businesses around EUR 8 billion annually.
3 minutes

IBFD and EATLP sign CC-BY Agreement for EATLP International Tax Series

IBFD and the European Association of Tax Law Professors (EATLP) have renewed their longstanding agreement on the EATLP International Tax Series, published by IBFD. Under the agreement, all new volumes of the EATLP International Tax series will be published under a ‘CC-BY’ license. The agreement also establishes that all forthcoming volumes will be made available online for free, through IBFD’s commitment to Open Access.
2 minutes

Parliament Adopts Sweeping 2026 Tax Reform Bill with Retroactive Expat Incentives, Group Relief Expansion

The Belgian parliament (Kamer van volksvertegenwoordigers/Chambre des députés) has adopted a bill introducing a participation exemption for group contributions, making the expat regime more attractive, and amending tax credits, deductions and the statute of limitation provisions. If not reported otherwise, the measures apply from the assessment year 2026. For previous coverage, see Belgium Tables Sweeping 2026 Tax Reform Bill with Retroactive Expat Incentives and Group Relief Expansion (8 July 2025).The most important details of the bill are summarized below.
4 minutes