Brussels, 06/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - In an article in the Financial Times on Monday 6 May 2013, EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta said that he planned to issue a reform proposal “within months” that would require tax authorities to automatically exchange banking details on capital gains, dividends and royalties received by individual partners in investment companies, investment funds and hedge funds.
The new rules will extend the information exchange requirement to more complicated investments than the current rules, which only cover interest on savings received by individuals for savings in banks in other countries. It will not apply everywhere in Europe because updating of the savings tax directive is still being vetoed at the Council of Ministers.
The commissioner said he was confident that recent tax scandals in France and Germany had generated the political will to expose those hiding income behind secrecy laws. He was referring to the move by Germany, France, Italy, the UK and Spain to set up an information exchange system among themselves based on the FATCA law in the United States, and the recent decision by Luxembourg to accept the move (see EUROPE 10838). The stance taken by Austria, the other fierce opponent of automatic exchange of bank information, is changing. Semeta hopes that at the Ecofin Council on Tuesday 14 May, Luxembourg and Austria will lift their vetoes on updating the savings tax directive and will agree to grant a negotiating mandate to the European Commission for making similar changes to the EU's savings tax deals with Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino and Monaco. (FG/transl.fl)