Brussels, 14/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - Due to the reservations maintained by Austria and Luxembourg, the ECOFIN Council failed to make progress, on Tuesday 13 November, on a mandate for the European Commission to negotiate the revision of the bilateral agreements signed by the EU in 2004 with five third countries (Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Andorra, Monaco and San Marino) on the taxation of assets deposited by European citizens in the banks of these countries. The Cypriot Presidency therefore decided to refer the matter to the heads of state and government to sound them out as to the best way forward.
This mandate would allow the Commission to re-negotiate these agreements to bring them into line with the provisions of the revised directive on tax on savings income (2003/48/EC), which provides for an automatic exchange of information between the tax administrations of the member states. Austria and Luxembourg, which currently retain their banking secrecy together with a system of deduction at source, are refusing to agree to this mandate until the five third countries mentioned above have themselves started to apply measures equivalent to those laid down by the EU directive. European Commissioner responsible for Taxation Algirdas Semeta tried again to talk them round. Agreeing on launching the negotiations does not in any way prejudge their final outcome. Austria and Luxembourg will be able to oppose the outcome of the negotiations, if they feel that this goes against their interests, he told the ECOFIN Council, adding that if certain member states wish to keep in place their banking secrecy for their own residents, that is their decision. Our discussions do not call this into question. But this argument does not apply when it comes to non-residents. The EU's approach imposes nothing on residents of Austria and Luxembourg. It simply allows the 25 other member states to ensure the tax equity of their own residents, in line with their own national rules.
In the conclusions they adopted, the finance ministers state that rapid progress on the mandate and the “Tax on savings” directive are priority. As regards indirect taxation, the priority measures put forward are: the fight against VAT fraud; the exchange of information; and the effective use of an electronic control system for the collection of excise duty. (FG/transl.fl)