On 11 July 2018, the Federal Council (upper house of parliament) of Austria adopted two declarations as approved by the National Council (lower house) on 4 July 2018. The two declarations are relating to the effective date of the multilateral agreements for the exchange of Country-by-Country (CbC) Reports (CbC MCAA) and for the exchange of financial account information (CRS MCAA), which provide for the relevant exchange of information under the Mutual Assistance Convention.

Both statements indicate that the Mutual Assistance Agreement will be generally applicable applies for a party to the Convention as from 1 January of the year following the entry into force for that party, information may be exchanged under the Convention in respect of earlier tax periods if agreed to by any two or more parties to the Convention.

On that basis, the declarations provide that Austria has deemed the Convention effective in respect of the CbC MCAA and CRS MCAA for earlier periods in relation to other parties that have made similar declarations, irrespective of the taxable periods or charges to tax to which such information relates in the receiving jurisdiction.