EU Savings Tax Directive On Schedule For July 2005 Introduction
The European Union is on schedule to introduce the Savings Tax Directive on
July 1, 2005, it emerged following a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels
on Tuesday. The directive was originally set to be implemented on January 1, but
it was decided by the EU to postpone its introduction by six months to allow
the Swiss and other territories cooperating with the EU sufficient time to transpose the legislation
into domestic law. Addressing a news conference after the meeting, Luxembourg's Economy Minister
Jeannot Krecke stated that "we have good reason to believe all will be
in place for July 1". The European jurisdictions of Monaco and Liechtenstein have not yet written
the appropriate legislation into domestic law, although they have pledged to do so
in time for the deadline. Meanwhile, the dependent territories of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands
must also have legislation in place by May 30 in order to meet the deadline. The new directive, which has been several years in the making, allows tax authorities
of EU member states and certain other key jurisdictions to exchange information
on savings income with an individual's home state. However, certain states and territories, such as Switzerland, the Channel Islands
and the Isle of Man, have opted out of exchanging information and will apply
a withholding tax on interest income for a transitional period. A comprehensive report in our Intelligence Report series examining offshore confidentiality is available in the Lowtax Library at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/subs_reports.asp and a description of the report can be seen at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/description_report1.asp
|
|
IMPORTANT NOTICE: TAX-NEWS.COM has taken reasonable care in sourcing and presenting the information contained on this site, but accepts no responsibility for any financial or other loss or damage that may result from its use. In particular, users of the site are advised to take appropriate professional advice before committing themselves to involvement in offshore jurisdictions, offshore trusts or offshore investments. All materials on this site copyright TAX-NEWS.COM 1999 to 2007. Contact us for further information.