Austria and tax transparency
AUSTRIAN FAR-RIGHTS. The Austrian Parliament Tuesday made it easier to prosecute foreign tax evaders, by passing a law intended to get the country in line with international banking transparency standards. With this law, Austria took a first step to be removed from so-called grey list of tax havens drawn up by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. While Austria is not as important a banking centre as neighbouring Liechtenstein and Switzerland, it is the only European Union member on the OECD banking “grey list”. Besides Austria, the list contains non-EU countries that have not yet implemented these standards.
To be promoted to a financial “white list”, countries must sign at least 12 new bilateral fiscal treaties in which they agree to cooperate on tax evasion issues. Failure to quickly sign new tax deals may result in sanctions. The European Investment Bank has said it will cut off funding to Austrian banks’ projects abroad if it does not make the necessary changes by the March 2010 deadline.
Leaving grey list means Austria will share banking information when authorities in foreign countries need it for prosecution. The new law allows foreign authorities to get Austria’s help in dealing with foreign holders of Austrian bank accounts that are suspected of tax evasion.
Austria’s main political parties agreed last week to pass measures which should ease banking secrecy and help bring the country up to OECD standards on financial transparency.
Austria’s far-right Freedom Party was the only one to oppose the new rules, with party leader Heinz-Christian Strache saying it was “a first step to carry Austrian banking secrecy to the grave.”
Sources: DPA, Reuters, Business World onlineCollage by Galina Toktalieva
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