The “falling” of the European tax havens

Several countries previously known as tax havens are cutting back on the protection they are willing to offer.

The following excerpts are from Lisa Jucca and Boris Groendahl, Tax havens agree to crack open the vault, Yahoo! News, March 13, 2009: 

Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg offered to relax strict bank secrecy in some tax evasion cases on Friday in a response to a global crackdown on tax havens that is rattling the offshore banking industry.

The three countries made the concessions ahead of a meeting starting on Friday of finance ministers from the G20 group of developed and emerging countries due to discuss tax havens, and after similar moves by Andorra and Liechtenstein on Thursday. * * *

Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg said on Friday they would abide by OECD rules by cooperating on sharing information about savers with other countries on a case-by-case basis, but not automatically, as many countries want. * * *

Critically, Switzerland will now cooperate in cases of suspected tax evasion, at least once double taxation agreements are renegotiated with other countries, which could take time. It also said it could seek an amnesty for existing clients.

Special thanks to David S. Luber (Attorney at law, Florida Probate Attorney Wills and Estates Law Firm) for bringing this article to my attention.