New guidelines in relation to the waiver from filing DAC6 information and updates to the DAC6 annual notification

On 8 March 2023, the Commissioner for Revenue (‘CfR’) published a new guideline in relation to the waiver from filing information in respect of a reportable cross-border arrangement, which states that the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) judgement C-694/20 laid down a limitation on the notification obligations for lawyers who are subject to legal professional privilege.

In line with this judgement, the new guideline states that the provisions concerning the notification obligation set out in regulation 13(7)(e) of the Cooperation with Other Jurisdictions on Tax Matters Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 123.127 of the laws of Malta are to be interpreted such that they do not apply in the case of advocates, notaries, and legal procurators except where the notification is to be made to the client of the said advocates, notaries and legal procurators, which could be the relevant taxpayer or another intermediary, to be determined on a case by case basis.

In line with what is stated in the abovementioned guideline, the Guidelines on the Mandatory Automatic Exchange of Information in relation to Cross-Border Arrangements (the ‘Guidelines’) have also been amended to state that for advocates, notaries and legal procurators affected by the judgement of the CJEU Case C-694/20, there shall be no obligation to include the identification details of the relevant taxpayer or other intermediary on whom the reporting obligation has been waived. Such persons are also not obliged to disclose the Arrangement ID and Disclosure ID numbers.

The CfR has also published an updated version of the Annual Notification to be submitted by 31 March 2023 in relation to the DAC6 notifications made in 2022. The Guidelines include the updates to the template provided in Annex I of the said Guidelines.