Luxembourg Rejects Savings Tax Compromise
EU Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy announced on Tuesday that the proposals
put forward by the Swiss government in an attempt to reach a compromise over
the European bloc's savings tax directive are 'quite substantial', and revealed
that negotiations have reached a stage that is 'worth pursuing'. Despite this, however, Luxembourg's Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Jean-Claude
Juncker rejected the Swiss offering at a behind-the-scenes meeting on Tuesday,
at which representatives from the Danish presidency, Belgium, Austria and Luxembourg
attempted to reach agreement ahead of Wednesday's Ecofin meeting of EU finance
ministers. Mr Juncker told reporters that the Swiss
voluntary information exchange and withholding tax offer is 'neither equivalent,
nor equal' to the European Union's original plan for the taxation of non-resident
savings interest. 'Luxembourg will stick to its position tomorrow,' he told listeners on Tuesday, referring to the special ECOFIN meeting which had been hastily arranged in a last-ditch attempt to present an agreed deal to the end-of-presidency summit taking place in Copenhagen today. A comprehensive report on the OECD, FATF and other 'offshore'
initiatives, including the EU's Savings Tax Directive, is available in the Tax
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