Systems and methods for fall-back rate-matching and timing for user equipment (UE) configured for downlink (DL) Coordinated Multi-Point Transmission (CoMP) are disclosed. In one embodiment, when a UE configured in DL CoMP receives a fall-back transmission, PDSCH is rate-matched around the serving cell CRS. In an alternative embodiment, when a UE configured in DL CoMP receives a fall-back transmission, PDSCH is rate-matched or uses timing around one of the cell-specific reference symbol (CRS) resource element (RE) set indicated by RRC-higher layer signaling. For example, PDSCH may be rate-matched or use timing around the first RRC higher layer configured CRS RE set.