Brussels, 30/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - After years defending its anonymous bank accounts tooth and nail, Luxembourg and Austria seem to be buckling under pressure from their partners, especially following resolutions from the G20 on tackling tax evasion (see EUROPE 10832).
Luxembourg seems to have made a complete U-turn. In the Financial Times on Tuesday 29 April, Luxembourg's Finance Minister Luc Frieden said that his country is prepared to extend the automatic exchange of bank account information it has signed with the United States and the European Union to multinational companies. At present, only individuals are covered. Frieden did not give any details about how this would materialise or the range of information to be provided, but this would go beyond Luxembourg's promise to its European partners to apply automatic exchange of bank account information from January 2015 onwards for accounts held by residents of other member states, thus complying with the requirements of the EU savings tax directive. The U-turn is also confirmed by the announcement by Frieden that his government is prepared to join the pilot project headed by France (see EUROPE 10824), that was launched this month by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain to share information about bank accounts held by their passport-holders abroad in order to clamp down on tax evasion and money-laundering via means of anonymous trusts, foundations and the like.
Austria is not conceding as much, but is prepared to give some ground over its anonymous bank accounts (see the above-mentioned issue of EUROPE). The Austrian chancellor, Werner Faymann, said on Saturday 27 April that he is prepared to sign an agreement with Austria's EU partners at the European summit on automatic exchange of information about bank accounts held in Austria by residents abroad, but it will be ensuring that banking secrecy continues for local residents. Austria may, in this way, also comply with the savings tax directive, paving the way for formal approval of it.
The next step expected of the two countries by their European partners is for them to give the go-ahead to a negotiating mandate for the European Commission to revise the tax agreements between the EU and Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra and San Marino to adjust them to the savings tax directive. Progress is being seen in this area too, with Switzerland and Liechtenstein no longer viewing the lifting of bank account anonymity a taboo subject. (FG/transl.fl)