Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Bloomberg has reported that Austria and Luxembourg opposed the plans, which would force them to give up their system of withholding tax and join an automatic EU-wide information exchange system.

"European Tax Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said yesterday that Luxembourg and Austria at the time “agreed with the conditions” that they would give up withholding tax and join the automatic information exchange system once the non-EU countries agree to swap tax-related information. “Now they’re working against the conditions,”" Bloomberg quoted.

"László Kovács, the European commissioner for taxation, said that the Liechtenstein agreement should not be “held hostage to other issues”. He said the actions of Austria and Luxembourg were hampering progress in cracking down on global tax fraud, an issue he said was “high on the political agenda of the EU”. Kovács said that no member states were opposed to the substance of the Liechtenstein agreement and that he would present it for formal adoption by EU finance ministers before the end of the year.", Jim Brunsden added to quote László Kovács .

According to TJN Austria yields and opacity score of 91% whereas Luxembourg yields and opacity score of 87%.

Both jurisdictions are no longer on the "OECD grey list" (Cf. list dated 20 October 2009) despite nothing is actually done to implements the agreements. So the title of the "white list" is misleading.

Europeanvoice.com has reported that Luxembourg and Austria are blocking adoption of an EU anti-fraud agreement with Liechtenstein, because of concerns that their banks will be left at a competitive disadvantage. They are also opposing mandates for the European Commission to negotiate similar agreements with Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland.

The Liechtenstein agreement covers co-operation with member states to tackle intentional tax evasion and tax fraud. It would oblige the principality to provide, on request, details on individual account holders and value of deposits.

Austria and Luxembourg complain that the agreement is too narrow, as it would not force Liechtenstein to reveal full information on beneficiaries of trusts and shell corporations.

Austria and Luxembourg do not like transparency as they support trusts and shell corporations.

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International Tax Review provided a very interesting analysis on the debate about the fight against tax havens.

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