The EU Internal Market means freedom to move, operate and invest across Europe. But when it comes to taxation, that freedom also creates risks of fraud, evasion and aggressive tax planning, as well as harmful competition between countries seeking to attract investment. This is why ensuring fair and effective taxation is a key EU policy.

To implement such a policy, tax authorities in the EU need to work together. Directive 2011/16 regulates administrative cooperation in “direct” (i.e. income and corporate) taxation within the EU, and provides EU countries with a ‘toolbox’ to exchange information and strengthen the fight against cross-border tax fraud.

The Evaluation of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation in Direct Taxation

DG TAXUD has recently launched an evaluation of the Directive, which Syntesia is leading with the support of Ramboll and London Economics. The exercise will cover the classic five evaluation criteria – relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and EU added value – and will also include an assessment of how the Directive is being implemented and applied at national level. Running from December 2022 to autumn 2023, the evaluation builds on a previous assessment, carried out in 2018 by a team which included two of Syntesia’s founding partners, Giacomo Luchetta and Giulia Stecchi. This offers a rare opportunity – aside from assessing new parts of the Directive for the first time, Giacomo and Giulia get to see what happened after the previous assignment left off, and test whether their conclusions and recommendations were right after all.