17th October 2014

Politics: Finance ministers agree on new anti-tax evasion measures

On 14 October in Luxembourg, the finance ministers of the EU28 held a meeting of the ECOFIN Council. In line with the OECD and G20 general guidelines on fight against tax evasion, the ministers discussed and eventually agreed on a revised automatic exchange of tax information directive. The directive currently in force was agreed on in 2013 and provides for mandatory exchange of tax-related information between the tax administrations for the cases in which the taxpayer is a resident of another Member State. Now, the ministers agreed to include information on financial assets categories of income, such as interests and dividends, into the scope of the directive. It will thus add up to the already exchanged information on employment, life insurance products, immovable property and other types of income. The new rules go in line with the EU´s fight against tax fraud and evasion. Tax matters legislative acts are not adopted through the ordinary legislative procedure, that is with the participation of the European Parliament. Pursuant to the relevant articles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, such acts are adopted unanimously by the Council, the EP being consulted. The text agreed by the ministers will now be edited and translated in all the EU official languages. Then, at a next Council meeting, it will be formally adopted without further discussion.

Members of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic