The new EU Savings Tax directive is due for approval in April.

But now Reuters say:

The European Union's rules on taxing deposits held outside a home state must be redrawn after moves by Luxembourg and other countries to apply global rules on tackling tax evasion, the Grand Duchy said on Tuesday.

Luxembourg Treasury and Budget Minister Luc Frieden said the country's decision to adopt OECD rules for exchanging information with other countries on tax cases should be used by all EU states.

The EU executive's plan for revising the bloc's rules on savings tax and exchange of information between member states go further than the OECD standards adopted last week by Luxembourg.

"If that is the worldwide standard and if all the countries agree to that, then I think it would be strange if the EU member states that are part of the G20 say something different," Frieden told the Reuters Fund Summit.

"We agreed together with Swizterland, Singapore, Hong Kong and others to change to an exchange of information on demand but that must then be the standard applicable everywhere," Frieden said.

What does this mean? Simply that Luxembourg wants to offer one or two of the useless Tax Information Exchange Agreements and scarp the EU STD.

Let me remind them of that word sanctions.

It may be time to impose them.

400,000 people in Luxembourg are not going to bring down reform of the world's financial architecture for their own ill-gotten gain.

But it does remind us that corrupt people are everywhere. And yes — I am saying in this case the the politicians of Luxemburg are corrupt. I am saying they are running a secrecy jurisdiction. I am saying they are letting heir banks handle what they know to be stolen property — because that is what tax evaded money is.