The Ministry of Finance issued the here below Decision No. 246/1 dated 06/07/2020 published in the Official Gazette No. 39 dated 08/10/2020 determining the cases in which information requests covered by the Banking Secrecy Law or by article 151 of the Code of Money and Credit are urgent by nature, or whose notification to the inquirer could affect the chances of success of the investigations, in compliance with the provisions of paragraph 4 of clause 5 of the Law No.55/2016 (Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes) and article 7 of the implementation Decree No. 1550/2017.
The competent authority in Lebanon is considered, in the presence of one of these cases, responsible for responding to the request presented by the foreign authority as soon as the conditions imposed by the Law are met, without informing the inquirer. The request made by the Requesting State must be qualified by the latter as urgent, or among those requests whose notification to the inquiring party would affect the chances of success of the investigations carried out by the said Requesting State.
The requests that are considered as urgent in nature are:
- Requests relating to the auditing of a tax period subject to an extinctive prescription in the country presenting the request;
- Requests related to cases stipulated for auditing and to be decided within short deadlines provided for by the Law;
- Any other case relating to a request which the competent authority in Lebanon has approved on its qualification as urgent, by virtue of a direct communication between the two countries.
The requests whose notification to the person whose information is being requested could affect the chances of success of the investigations carried out by the said Requesting State are:
- The requests which allow the person whose information is being requested to implement legal and practical measures which would conceal all or part of the reality;
- The requests which grant the person whose information is being requested the opportunity to communicate with persons with whom the latter contracted during a previous period in order to conceal information or to disclose information which misleads the investigation.
- Any other case related to a request whose notification to the person whose information is being requested is considered by the competent authority in Lebanon to be likely to affect the validity of investigations, by means of a direct communication between the two countries.