Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Luxembourg was congratulated by Angel Gurria. Great.

Its bankers applaud the Luxembourg government for its swift implementation of the OECD standards and for getting Luxembourg removed from the so-called grey list. They state that the government has not only proven that Luxembourg’s presence on such a list was completely unnecessary in the first place, but has also demonstrated its commitment to ensuring a global level-playing field. Great.

The Luxembourg tax administration has displayed online the conventions and the exchange of letters.

To be accepted, a request shall have to specify:

(a) the identity of the person under examination or investigation;

(b) a statement of the information sought including its nature and the form in which the applicant State wishes to receive the information from the requested State;

(c) the tax purpose for which the information is sought;

(d) grounds for believing that the information requested is held in the requested State or is in the possession or control of a person within the jurisdiction of the requested State;

(e) to the extent known, the name and address of any person believed to be in possession of the requested information;

(f) a statement that the request is in conformity with the law and administrative practices of the applicant State, that if the requested information was within the jurisdiction of the applicant State then the competent authority of the applicant State would be able to obtain the information under the laws of the applicant State or in the normal course of administrative practice and that it is in conformity with this Convention;

(g) a statement that the applicant State has pursued all means available in its own territory to obtain the information, except those that would give rise to disproportionate difficulties.

This only does not comply with what Pascal Saint-Amans, Head of division for the co-operation and tax competition, quoted by L'Expansion said : "Il faudra seulement fournir l'identité d'une personne soupçonnés de fraude, et c'est tout" (free translation : it will only be required to provide with the identity of a person suspected to commit fraud and that's all) all the more than Swiss professionals admitted that "Il sera, en pratique, très difficile pour les autorités fiscales étrangères qui appliquent les standards de l’OCDE de fournir ce degré de details" (free translation: “It will be, in practice, very difficult for the foreign tax authorities which apply the OECD standards to provide this degree of details”)

The OECD is being fooled or it is fooling the audience.