Brussels, 11/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - By 360 votes to 59 and 287 abstentions, the European Parliament voted on 11 December to adopt the report by Romanian Socialist George Sabin Cutas on legislation unveiled by the European Commission on 12 June to adjust the EU directive on administrative cooperation in tax affairs (2011/16/EU) to widen the compulsory exchange of bank information (AEI) among tax offices on dividends, capital gains tax and other forms of financial income, and also about the balance held on bank accounts, on January 2014.
The draft legislation was amended by both the EPP and the ALDE Groups to restrict its scope, but the essence of the changes were voted through. An amendment reducing by four the number of new categories of income subject to compulsory AEI, and an EPP amendment giving member states the power to decide on the categories of information to be supplied for compulsory AEI were rejected. The S&D Group behind the draft resolution abstained from the vote on the full proposal due to the approval of an amendment calling for the new categories of income subject to compulsory AEI to be defined in line with the interpretation given in the legislation of the member state providing the information. In a press release, Sabin Cutas says this undermines the development of an EU definition of AEI. Along with the revised savings tax directive (that is still on the table at the Council of Ministers, see EUROPE 10981), this draft directive would give the EU the broadest AEI legislation in the world. (FG/transl.fl)