Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC8)

DAC8 provides for automatic exchange of information on crypto-assets between EU countries. It is the eighth amendment of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation in Direct Taxation. DAC8 governs reporting, not tax liability itself: it gives tax authorities visibility into crypto-asset transactions, while calculating and declaring what's actually owed remains the individual taxpayer's responsibility under each member state's domestic tax rules. Formally Council Directive (EU) 2023/2226, DAC8 amends Directive 2011/16/EU, the EU's core framework for administrative cooperation in tax matters, to incorporate the OECD's CARF alongside the OECD's parallel amendments to the Common Reporting Standard (CRS).

It requires Reporting Crypto-Asset Service Providers (RCASPs), regardless of where they are established, to report on EU-resident users' crypto-asset transactions. It also updates the EU's existing DAC2/CRS rules to bring in Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and specified e-money products, an approach often referred to as "CRS 2.0."

Certain users are carved out as "Excluded Persons": listed entities and their related entities, government bodies, international organizations, central banks, and financial institutions other than certain investment entities. Transactions with them are not reportable. 

Crypto-Asset Operators must register with one member state, determined by their nexus or branch. Non-EU operators are relieved of reporting only where their jurisdiction has an effective information-exchange agreement with the member states concerned. 

Data is exchanged in a standardized XML format based on the OECD's CARF and CRS schemas with EU extensions. 

The core obligations of a Reporting Crypto-Asset Service Provider include:

• Collecting self-certifications confirming each user's name, address, tax residence, TIN, date of birth and, for entities, their controlling persons 
• Monitoring for changes in circumstances affecting a user's reportable status
• Reporting annually to their home member state's tax authority on both the user and their transactions

Digital asset tax reporting combines different reporting models. CARF and DAC8 require underlying transaction data to produce annual user- and asset-level aggregates. CRS 2.0 extends account reporting to e-money, CBDCs and indirect crypto exposures, and Form 1099-DA requires US brokers to report individual disposals, proceeds and applicable cost basis. Despite these differences, each framework depends on accurate identity, tax-residency, classification, transaction and valuation data. 

This shared data foundation creates the case for scalable technology. A unified, cloud-native platform can ingest and normalize on- and off-chain data, apply jurisdiction-specific rules and generate CARF-aligned XML or IRS-specific outputs. Intelligent workflows automate validation and exception handling, immutable audit trails preserve every calculation and decision, and machine-to-machine submission and feedback management support controlled reporting as volumes, jurisdictions and schemas evolve.