As the European Voice has noted: EU Finance ministers fail to reach deal on tax avoidance That’s the depressing out come of yesterday’s ECOFIN meeting. As was also noted: Maria Fekter, the finance minister of Austria, the last country to oppose a revision of the EU’s savings tax directive, said during today’s meeting of finance ministers that while she
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The Guardian reported this today: George Osborne will step up his campaign to toughen developed countries’ stance on tax havens and company tax transparency by urging his fellow EU finance ministers to sign the delayed savings directive as a first step to creating a global standard on tax information. In a letter to his fellow finance
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According to a report from Reuters: Austria will drop its opposition to the routine sharing of bank account data with its European Union partners as long as bank secrecy for Austrians is maintained, Chancellor Werner Faymann said, appearing to end uncertainty over Vienna’s stance. The EU is trying to negotiate accords to crack down on
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The FT has noted: Luxembourg is ready to share currently confidential information about multinationals’ bank accounts as part of efforts to shed the Grand Duchy’s image as a leading tax haven. Under pressure amid a renewed global crackdown on tax evasion and avoidance, Luc Frieden, finance minister, said Luxembourg was willing to expand the number
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There’s been another step forward in  progress towards revising the European Union Savings Tax Directive. As Business Week Reported at the weekend: Austria became the last of the European Union’s 27 members to give up blocking the coordination of savings taxes and talks with non-EU countries, a sign that banking secrecy within the bloc may be
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There are several reports this morning that Luxembourg is backing down on the issue of banking secrecy. As the BBC put it: Luxembourg would consider greater transparency of its banking sector to help curb tax evasion, the finance minister has told a German newspaper. In an interview published on Sunday, Luc Frieden said he wanted
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I’ve already noted this morning that Jersey has conceded that the UK has all the power in its relationship with the USA over FATCA. It made another interesting concession in questions and answers made yesterday in the States of Jersey. The following exchange took place, with Geoff Southern, a long term friend of tax justice, asking the question:
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World Radio Switzerland has just reported: Switzerland has six months to improve its tax practices or it will be blacklisted by the European Commission. That’s a warning given by a European Commissioner for Taxation and Customs, Algirdas Semeta, to the print media in Switzerland. He says if the EC’s expectations aren’t met some EU countries
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Some interesting legal developments appear to be underway which suggest that Luxembourg and Austria may be forced to abandon banking secrecy. From Le Temps: Austria and Luxembourg still refuse to abolish bank secrecy in favor of the automatic exchange of information within the European Union (EU). But U.S. tax law FATCA could well change this. The
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