Brussels, 24/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - Without debate on Monday 24 March, EU28 farm ministers approved the draft revised savings tax directive, which had been on the negotiating table since November 2008 but which was for a long time vetoed by Austria and Luxembourg. The changes to Directive 2003/48/EC now need to be transposed into national legislation by January 2016 and come into force in 2017.
The revised directive aims to fill gaps in savings tax rules in order to clamp down on tax evasion. It expands the automatic exchange of bank information (AEI), currently restricted to interest payments on savings to non-residents, to other types of financial products, like investment funds, life-insurance and pensions. It will also now cover payments by trust funds, foundations and other letter-box companies.
At the moment, 26 member states are involved in AEI. During a transition period, Luxembourg and Austria will be allowed to levy a 35% tax at source on savings rather than join AEI. Luxembourg has already announced that it will end banking secrecy on 1 January 2015. Both countries were demanding similar competitive conditions to the five European tax havens in question (Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino and Monaco) before they would lift their veto, and at the European summit last week, they were given such assurances (see EUROPE 11044). On Monday 24 March, EU Taxation Commissioner Algirdas Semeta said that “Switzerland and the four other countries now accept that the automatic exchange of information must be at the core of their relations with the EU in taxation” and promised an agreement would be reached to revise the five countries' tax deal with the EU later this year. The Commission will be publishing a progress report on the negotiations in December to EU heads of state. The negotiating mandate does not cover access to the European market for financial service suppliers from the five non-EU nations. OECD heads of state will be introducing a new global AEI standard in May, developed by the OECD. The OECD will later be dealing with a few related issues where problems remain to be ironed out. In order to ensure that EU rules match the OECD rules, the Commission is intending to adjust where necessary the EU directive on administrative cooperation, which is currently under review and which is due to come into force in January 2015 so that member states only have to adjust their tax systems once. On behalf of the Greek Presidency of the Council of the EU, Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras welcomed this “big step forward for the fight against tax fraud and evasion, and, indeed, tax fairness and social justice”. (EL)