Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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49. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the European Commission's new proposals regarding the mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12281/15]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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50. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of tax rulings since March 2011, and since 1990, that Ireland has voluntarily shared with the European Commission under existing regulations on the exchange of information in the field of taxation. [12282/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 49 and 50 together.

Council Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation provides for the exchange of information between the tax authorities of EU Member States and the Regulations (SI 549 of 2012) giving effect to the Directive under Irish law designate the Revenue Commissioners as the competent authority for the purposes of the Directive.

Last week, the European Commission published a proposal to amend the Directive to provide for automatic exchange of information on advance tax rulings for companies in respect of cross-border transactions or activities. Rulings in this regard include opinions or confirmations, on the application of tax law or administrative practice to transactions or activities, which are provided by a Member State's tax authority in advance of the transaction or activity or in advance of the filing of a tax return. Although not referred to by Revenue as rulings, opinions or confirmations providing Revenue's interpretation of the correct application of tax law to cross-border transactions or activities fall within the scope of the Commission proposal. Revenue practice and procedures for providing opinions are set out in published guidelines on the Revenue website at .

As a country with an open and transparent tax regime, Ireland is supportive of EU and international efforts to enhance global tax transparency and exchange of information between tax administrations.  We will engage constructively in the discussion at EU Council on the Commission's proposal in relation to automatic exchange of information on cross-border tax rulings.

In relation to the voluntary sharing of information between Member States' tax authorities under existing provisions, Article 9 of Council Directive 2011/16/EU provides for spontaneous exchange of information in certain specific circumstances where information is foreseeably relevant to the tax authorities of other Member States. Over the years, Revenue has spontaneously provided information on tax matters to the competent authorities of other Member States and received such information from Member States' competent authorities in accordance with the provisions of the Directive.

While to date information in relation to advance tax opinions has not been provided to, nor received from, other Member States under the spontaneous exchange provision, a framework for operating spontaneous exchange of information in relation to advance cross-border rulings was agreed last year by the EU Code of Conduct Group on Business Taxation, which reports to the ECOFIN Council. Revenue has made administrative arrangements for implementing this framework, the details of which are set out in a recent eBrief published on the Revenue website at .