Brussels, 23/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 23 October, the 15 experts on the Clearing and Settlement Fiscal Compliance Group (FISCO) issued their second report on removing fiscal barriers related to clearing and settlement of cross-border securities transactions (see EUROPE 9176). Among the concrete proposals made is the creation of an “EU tax relief procedure”. This procedure should be based on a common standard of information collection, mainly based on self-certification by the beneficial owner. This common standard should be included in a single document, valid on all EU member states, presented upon opening an account or deposit. It should be possible to pass this document to authorities electronically, without the need for it to be renewed on a regular basis.
According to the FISCO group, this procedure should allow the appropriate tax relief to be applied at source “without excessive documentation requirements and without issuers (of shares), intermediaries and investors to unnecessary risks and costs”. It should “ensure equal treatment of foreign and local intermediaries”. It should be applied uniformly across the EU, “irrespective of the location in which securities are held or transactions settled and irrespective of the investment structure or settlement structure or settlement arrangements chosen by the investors and intermediaries”. The FISCO group worked on two of the 15 “Giovannini” obstacles to European integration of the clearing and settlement sector: tax relief procedures and full payment of transaction charges. “It is my intention to use the FISCO findings and proposed solutions as a basis for further discussion with member states on future EU initiatives to simplify and modernise tax procedures applied to financial assets,” said Taxation Commissioner László Kovács in a press release. (M.B.)