Publication of the law implementing DAC 6 in Luxembourg domestic law

On 21 March 2020, the Luxembourg Parliament voted the law implementing the EU Directive 2018/822 of 25 May 2018 amending Directive 2011/16/EU as regards mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation in relation to reportable cross-border arrangements (so called “DAC 6”). The implementation law was published on 26 March 2020.

The main difference with the initial draft law is an extension of the type of intermediaries subject to professional secrecy which will not be in the scope of the generic reporting obligations. Under the published law, not only lawyers, but also chartered accountants and auditors will not be under the obligation to report any arrangements when performing services that are covered by their professional secrecy to the extent that they act within the boundaries of their profession and that they are subject to the Luxembourg laws governing these professions. Also, the lawyer’s obligation to report some general anonymised information on cross-border arrangements provided by the initial draft law no longer exists. However, such lawyers, chartered accountants and auditors would still be under the obligation to notify to other intermediaries involved in the cross-border arrangements that the DAC 6 reporting obligations fall on them.

For further details on the initial draft law, please refer to our publication released last summer, Luxembourg publishes draft rules to implement DAC 6.