Brussels, 21/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - According to diplomatic sources, at its meeting on Tuesday in Brussels, the Ecofin Council managed to reach a "political agreement" on the "fiscal package", under the Presidency of Nikos Chrisotdoulakis. The Greek Presidency is also expected to type up the text in the evening before making contact again with the Swiss to confirm the agreement, in order to adopt "equivalent" measures to that of Member States. Most of the discussions during the day focused on the rate of the tax to be applied by source in Luxembourg, Austria and Belgium, as well as the principle of "non-discrimination".
On the basis of a compromise of the Greek Presidency, twelve Member States will put into place on 1 January 2004 an information exchange system on savings income placed in their countries by residents from other Member States. Luxembourg, Austria and Belgium will no longer have to systematically go through the information exchange in 2011 but only "if and when" the Council has agreed through unanimity that third countries (Switzerland, USA, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco and Andorra) are committed to exchanging information on demand according to the modalities of the OECD agreement of 2002. Meanwhile, these three countries will have to apply a withholding tax of 15/20% during the three first years, 25% over two years and 35% five years after the entry into force of the directive (starting in 2007). Switzerland will apply the same rates "under strictly non-discriminatory conditions".
According to the agreement, the 35% rate is being kept despite the initial opposition of Luxembourg and Austria but the most important deadlines were agreed up to 2011). The non-discriminatory principle will have been worked