The EU Savings Directive, which obliged EU Member States to share details of deposit accounts held by citizens from other EU Member States, has been repealed. But for most practical purposes this anti-evasion mechanism continues to operate by virtue of a replacement Directive, the so-called “DAC2”.

DAC2 is the shorthand for Directive 2014/107/EU which concerns mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation between EU Member States. It is broader in scope than the Savings Directive it replaced.

There is now a raft of international agreements which allow Revenue Authorities from within EU Member States and beyond to exchange information. These include the Common Reporting Standard which provides for the exchange of information held by financial institutions, and various bi-lateral agreements which allow for the provision of taxpayer information between one country and another on request. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act concerning information exchange between Ireland and the US has been in operation for some time.

Details of the information exchange regime are available on the Revenue website, along with more specifics on the repeal of the Savings Directive.