At a meeting held on 6th December, the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) adopted a directive requiring member states to provide access to information on the beneficial ownership of companies. It will enable tax authorities to access information in monitoring the application of rules on the automatic exchange of tax information according to a press release from the ECOFIN.

The directive will give tax authorities enhanced access to information on the beneficial ownership of intermediary entities. Member states will have until 31 December 2017 to transpose the directive into national laws and regulations and the directive will apply from 1 January 2018. It is one of a number of measures set out by the Commission in July 2016, in the wake of the April 2016 Panama Papers revelations.