Brussels, 14/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - At their meeting on Tuesday 15 February, the EU27's economics and finance ministers are expected to formalise a draft directive on administrative cooperation on tax matters, one of the tax issues on the agenda (see brief description of the agenda in EUROPE 10314).
The ministers reached agreement on the directive in December 2010 (see EUROPE 10272) with a view to making it easier for member states to tackle tax dodging. The directive sets up EU rules for the exchange of detailed information about income and savings held in one country by residents of another member state to work out exactly how much each person owes and make it easier in practice to collect the tax due.
The directive says that member states cannot justify failure to cooperate on the grounds of banking secrecy and makes the automatic sharing of “available” information compulsory for five types of income, but these do not include dividends, capital gains and royalties received in other EU countries by residents of other member states.
The directive is part of a wider anti-fraud push that includes a directive on the taxation of interest received on savings (the savings tax directive) and anti-fraud deals with Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Monaco and San Marino, which will also be discussed by the ministers on Tuesday (see EUROPE 10314). (F.G./transl.fl)