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Guide to mutual agreement procedures

c. Communication of acceptance/denial to the other competent authority

The competent authority receiving the request for initiation will inform the competent authorities of the other states concerned of its receipt.

Where the request for the initiation of the mutual agreement procedure is made under a Tax Treaty or the Arbitration Convention, the time limit for communicating that information is four weeks from receipt of the request (Article 9.4 of the Regulation on Mutual Agreement Procedures).

In the case of mutual agreement procedures requested under the mechanism provided for in the Directive, the request must be sent, simultaneously, to the competent authorities of all of Member States concerned, except where the applicant:

  • is an individual; or
  • is not a large undertaking and does not form part of a large group, in accordance with Article 3(4) and (7) of Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013.

In that case, the taxpayer may send the request solely to the competent authority of the state in which they are resident for tax purposes. That competent authority must notify the competent authorities of the other states concerned of the receipt of the request, within two months of the date on which the request is received by its register. The taxpayer will be deemed to have submitted the request for initiation to all Member States concerned on the date of that notification.

Furthermore, the competent authority will notify the competent authorities of the Member States concerned of the acceptance or otherwise of the request for initiation (Article 11.1 of the Regulation on Mutual Agreement Procedures).

If, once the request has been accepted, the competent authority that received it considers that the request is well-founded but cannot find a solution acting by itself, it will inform the competent authority of the other state that the initiation of the procedure has been allowed and that the request was submitted within the required time limit, and it will attach the documentation relating to the case (Article 11.3 of the Regulation on Mutual Agreement Procedures).