On 9th April 2013, HM Treasury announced that the UK government had agreed with the French, German, Italian and Spanish governments to develop and pilot multilateral tax information exchange. Under the agreement, a wide range of financial information will be automatically exchanged between the five states. The intention is to help to catch and deter tax evaders, and to provide a template for wider multilateral automatic tax information exchange.

This pilot will be based on the Model Intergovernmental Agreement to Improve International Tax Compliance and to Implement FATCA developed between these countries and the United States, which also formed the basis of the subsequent UK-US bilateral automatic exchange agreement. The intention is to help to ensure that international tax evasion is dealt with in a way that minimizes costs for businesses and governments. HM Treasury also stated that a joint letter setting out the terms of the agreement had been issued to the European Commission on 9th April 2013.