AG Emiliou’s Opinion on DAC6 Validity: Equality, Legality, and Clarity in Tax Reporting Directive

AG Nicholas Emiliou issued his Opinion on the validity of DAC6 in the case Belgian Association of Tax Lawyers and Others v Premier ministre/ Eerste Minister
The case deals with the compatibility of certain aspects of the mandatory reporting regime of reportable cross-border arrangements under DAC6 with principles of equality, non-discrimination, legality in criminal matters, legal certainty, and the right to respect for private life
AG Emiliou found no issues affecting the validity of the Directive in his Opinion
The Belgian Association of Tax Lawyers and others brought proceedings before Belgium’s Constitutional Court challenging the transposition of DAC6 into national law
The Belgian Court referred five questions to the CJ for a preliminary ruling, including whether DAC6 infringes the principles of equality and non-discrimination
AG Emiliou considered that including taxes other than corporate tax in the reporting obligation does not breach the principle of equality
The second and third questions referred to the Court concern the clarity and precision of certain concepts of DAC6 to comply with the principle of legality of penalties and respect for private life
AG Emiliou addresses these issues separately and makes individual assessments on the clarity and precision of DAC6 concepts.

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.