On 21 June  2017, the European Commission proposed new transparency rules for intermediaries that design or sell potentially harmful tax schemes (press release). The Commission proposal aims to provide tax authorities with information about existing potentially aggressive tax planning schemes, so that they can scrutinize intermediaries' activities and increase their effectiveness in tackling aggressive tax planning. Under the proposal, intermediaries will have to report any cross-border arrangement that contains one or more characteristics (hallmarks) which might indicate that the arrangement is set up to avoid paying taxes. The text of the proposal can be found here and the annex including the potential hallmarks here. The Commission has also published the outcome of the consultation conducted last year (here). The proposal is submitted to the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee for consultation and to the Council for adoption. If the proposed Directive is adopted, the new reporting requirements would enter into force on 1 January 2019, with the Member States obliged to exchange information every 3 months after that. For further information, please contact Paul Hale or Enrique Clemente.