Ireland Incorporates EU Savings Tax Directive Into Domestic Law
By by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London
25 December 2003

Irish Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy signed a new Bill on Tuesday that incorporates the provisions of the European Savings Tax Directive into Irish law.

Although the Directive itself does not become fully effective until January 1st 2005, the European Communities (Taxation of Savings Income in the Form of Interest Payments) Regulations 2003 will require domestic banks to establish the identity and residence of beneficial owners of all new banks accounts opened in Ireland from January 1st 2004.

Irish banks will then be obliged to pass on details of savings income for taxation purposes to the Revenue Commission who are tasked with passing this information on to the tax authorities of the EU member state where the customer resides.

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