3rd LD Writethru: EU FinMins agree on taxation information exchange
LUXEMBOURG, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — EU finance minister meeting concluded on Tuesday with breakthrough in taxation exchange information to fight against tax avoidance.
Italian finance minister Pietro Carlo Padoan, whose country holds the presidency of the EU, told press after the meeting that the EU has planned to build a taskforce to push investment policy into force.
Under low GDP growth and very high and persisting levels of unemployment in much of Europe, the finance ministers underlined that improving the conditions for both public and private investment is at the center of the EU level response to promote growth potential and sustain demand.
On the issues of taxation information exchange, Padoan happily announced that the informal agreement has been reached by all member states and final rules will be signed in Berlin at the end of this year.
EU taxation Commissioner Algirdas Semeta also said that the last EU finance minister meeting of this Commission mandate is interesting and fruitful from a tax perspective of view.
“Bank secrecy is dead, and automatic exchange of information will be applied in its widest form,” Semeta said.
The Council agreed on a draft directive extending the scope for the mandatory automatic exchange of information between tax administrations, enabling them to better combat tax evasion and to improve the efficiency of tax collection, a statement said after the finance minister meeting.
Semeta noted that member states will fully cooperate in throwing open the traditional hiding places of tax evaders.
According to him, such new taxation legislation will ensure that the EU is fully aligned with the new global standard of automatic exchange, which world leaders have now committed to.
In recent years, cross-border tax fraud and tax evasion have become a major focus of concern, both within the EU and at global level. Unreported and untaxed income is considerably reducing potential national tax revenues.
