Luxembourg, Austria, And Belgium Offered New Concessions Over Savings Tax
The Financial Times reported on Friday that the Greek EU Presidency has formulated
a new plan which it hopes will secure the cooperation of Luxembourg, Austria
and Belgium over the EU's Savings Tax Directive. A document, seen by the FT last week, revealed that at tomorrow's meeting,
the three countries will be told that they are free to levy a withholding tax
of up to 35%, moving to automatic information exchange on the savings interest
of non-resident account holders only if non-EU members such as the United States
and Switzerland agree to do so. According to the FT: 'The Greek plan, handed to the EU's 15 ambassadors in a sealed envelope on
Wednesday, states that Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg would levy a tax of 15-20%
on non-residents savings between 2004 and 2007. The tax would rise to 25% between
2007 and 2009 and reach 35% after that.' The report went on to add that in addition to the staggered introduction of
the withholding tax, the three countries: 'are no longer obliged to move to
information exchange under the OECD rules from 2011, as stated in the December
compromise. Instead, a unanimous vote by the EU's 15 states would be needed
before they move to automatic exchange of information.' A comprehensive report on the OECD, FATF and other 'offshore' initiatives, including the EU's Savings Tax Directive, is available in the Tax News Reports Shop at http://www.tax-news.com/reportshop
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