Brussels, 04/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - In a communication on measures to fight tax fraud and tax evasion to be published on Tuesday 5 July, the Commission will announce that it plans to look at the activities of financial intermediaries promoting aggressive tax planning schemes, by launching a public consultation.
This initiative of the Commission is its response to the Panama Papers scandal, which highlighted the scale of funds hidden offshore. This Tuesday, the Commission will also present amendments to the anti-money laundering directive with the same objective in mind.
In its communication, the Commission notes that the OECD's action plan against tax optimisation, 'BEPS', recommends that countries require taxpayers and promoters of tax planning schemes to divulge these. Certain member states (Ireland, the UK and Portugal) already have this requirement in their legislation. However, the Commission is of the opinion that given the cross-border nature of this practice, purely national measures would have only a limited effect.
The communication states that as regards the fight against the financing of terrorism, the amendments to the anti-money laundering directive aim to broaden the scope of information accessible to the financial intelligence units, bring in due diligence requirements for exchanges of virtual currency and reinforce the verification of prepaid instruments, such as telephone cards.
In the light of Panama Papers, the Commission has also decided, within this directive, to reduce the threshold above which beneficial ownership must be declared, with regard to passive legal persons. Financial institutions will also have to systematically apply the due diligence rules to existing clients, rather than just to new ones. This will make it possible to check accounts which have not been reviewed for more than 10 years. Thirdly, the registration requirements for the beneficial owners of trusts have been clarified. Fourthly, by means of amendments to the directive on company law, the member states will have to provide public access to a series of information on businesses and certain types of trust. For all other trusts, this information will be accessible to persons with a legitimate interest.
The Commission has also proposed amendments to the directive on administrative cooperation, to allow the tax authorities access to the information contained in the anti-money-laundering directive, particularly information regarding customer diligence and the states' information on the registers of beneficial owners.
The Commission will also publish a delegated act to the anti-money laundering directive, which will consist of a list of high-risk countries which may facilitate money laundering. These countries are: Afghanistan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Guiana, Iraq, Laos, Syria, Uganda, Vanuatu and Yemen. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)