Austria Slams UK Over 'Tax Haven Hypocrisy'

[Baluarte]

Article from 1 week ago, but I find it quite interesting so I'm linking it anyway:

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Austria defies bank transparency calls and reminds the UK of its own tax haven links, as Cyprus' bailout gets eurozone approval.

Austria's finance minister has slammed Britain over its push against tax havens and bank secrecy laws.

Maria Fekter said: "Great Britain has many money laundering centres and tax havens in its immediate legal remit - the Channel Islands Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands, Virgin Islands.

"These are all hot spots for tax evasion and money laundering."


Ms Fekter would fight transparency "like a lion"
She added: "The G20 never, never accepted the information exchange (for bank accounts) and they never did any step to close the money laundering in all the (Caribbean) islands ... or the US in Delaware."

Ms Fekter made the statements as she arrived in Dublin for a two-day meeting of eurozone finance ministers, where they later formally approved the terms of a Cyprus debt bailout, saying it could now go ahead once cleared by national parliaments.

Earlier, Ms Fekter said she would "fight like a lion" to defend Austria's banking privacy.

"Austria is sticking to bank secrecy. We fight tax evasion and money laundering. I don't expect any uncomfortable questions."

According to an estimate by The Economist magazine, some $3trn (£2trn) has been ploughed in oblique tax haven accounts where investors' identities can remain hidden.

A recent data leak allegedly revealed Caribbean account holders as including British nominee firms, American dentists and the families of dictators.

Austria has vowed to stick to its bank secrecy laws on EU depositors, even though it has come under increasing EU pressure.

Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne have both pushed for greater transparency among EU and G20 nations.

Business Secretary Vince Cable has also voiced serious concerns over multinational businesses using cross-border structures to reduce corporation tax liabilities.


Isle of Man banks have improved transparency and data exchanging
Australia has already informed large companies that their tax accounts would be made public.

The outburst from the Austrian finance minister comes amid pressure from Germany for Luxembourg, which has become a finance hub for many multinationals, to improve bank transparency.

Luxembourg said it would improve transparency from 2015 and Austria remains the last EU nation to resist greater exchange of financial data.

Meanwhile at the Dublin meeting, Cyprus said it did not want more money from Europe to solve its financial crisis but it will ask for leeway to lessen the burden of measures imposed in exchange for agreed helped.

Cyprus said the bailout cost will jump from 17.5bn to 23bn euros but Luxembourg said it will oppose any increase in the EU & IMF's 10bn-euro contribution.

The Nicosia government said that banks and their depositors would not have to fund the extra 6bn euros needed to prevent the economy's collapse, on top of 17.5bn.

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Well said lady, the Brits have no right to blame anyone for banking corruption.
Let it be remembered LIBOR is one of the biggest scams in human history.

[Baluarte]

Seems the Austrian government was forced to yield:


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Austria aims to open up on bank secrecy within weeks

Chancellor Faymann sees chance for deal by EU summit in May

* Austria ready to drop bank secrecy on foreigners' accounts

* Unified EU position will allow talks with Switzerland, U.S.

* European Commission gives cautious welcome to new stance

By Michael Shields

VIENNA, April 27 (Reuters) - Austria aims to agree within weeks to give other European Union countries access to foreigners' bank account details, Chancellor Werner Faymann said on Saturday, allowing the bloc to begin talks over bank secrecy with non-EU states such as Switzerland.

Faymann said he hoped for a deal before a May 22 EU summit that will discuss ways to curb tax dodging that costs members about 1 trillion euros ($1.30 trillion) a year in lost income. EU leaders have pushed Austria for a deal before the meeting.

"We want to achieve a result for an exchange of data in the interest of fighting fraud in Europe," Faymann said in an interview aired by broadcaster ORF, playing down the potential impact of data swaps on Austria's banking sector.

"The biggest economic damage would be if we got the reputation of protecting frauds. Austrians don't find this necessary and I have spoken with bank managers who also don't find it necessary," he said.

Austria, the last EU holdout on bank secrecy, said on Friday it was ready for talks as long as banking secrecy for Austrians is preserved, and detailed its three main concerns.

Vienna had been isolated on this after Luxembourg changed tack this month.

Austrian banks at times use banking secrecy as a marketing tool, but foreign deposits do not play as much of a role as they do in major offshore centres such as Cyrpus and Luxembourg.

EU citizens have about 35 billion euros ($46 billion) in Austrian deposits, a tenth of the total, while foreigners have 53 billion euros in banks in Austria, the central bank says.

Austria now has banks withhold tax on EU citizens' interest income and returns the money anonymously to home countries.

NO BLACKMAIL

After weeks of wrangling, Faymann's centre-left Social Democrats and their centre-right People's Party coalition partners have laid out priorities for EU talks on an accord starting next week.

Finance Minister Maria Fekter, who had taken the hardest line in defence of Austrian banking secrecy, said she supported the joint position, which cites three points of "decisive relevance" for Austria.

Vienna wants negotiations to require an exchange of bank account data at least in line with Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) standards, reveal owners of trusts and mailbox companies, and take into account bilateral tax deals it already struck with Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Those accords preserve bank secrecy and are set to bring in more than 1 billion euros from mid-2013 from accounts Austrians hold across the borders.

Faymann made a point of saying Austria's concerns were just that, and not conditions for a deal.

"We don't need to blackmail anyone. We ourselves want the exchange of data to make it easier to fight fraud," he said.

"Our own banking secrecy is not affected. Prosecuting international fraud will be fully supported, and English trusts and the Channel Islands will also come into play."

Fekter has campaigned to have tax talks include not just bank accounts, but also trusts and other investment vehicles designed to cloak investors' identities. She has urged Britain and the United States to crack down on money laundering and "tax havens" in their own backyards.

A European Commission spokeswoman gave a cautious welcome to Austria's new position, which it had not yet seen officially.

"If Austria is willing to back the mandate to negotiate a stronger EU-Swiss agreement, then this would be very good news," she said.

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Yes, yes, more surveillance, more Police State!
That's what we crave for

[Baluarte]

And there we go, coercion has been succesfully applied and Vienna has yielded:

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Austria eases its stance on banking secrecy

Austria aims to agree within weeks to give other EU countries access to foreigners' bank account details, Chancellor Werner Faymann said on Saturday (27 April), allowing the bloc to begin talks over bank secrecy with non-EU states such as Switzerland.
Faymann said he hoped for a deal before a 22 May EU summit, when EU leaders will discuss ways to curb tax dodging that costs members about €1 trillion a year in lost income. EU leaders have pushed Austria for a deal before the meeting.

"We want to achieve a result for an exchange of data in the interest of fighting fraud in Europe," Faymann said in an interview aired by broadcaster ORF, playing down the potential impact of data swaps on Austria's banking sector.

"The biggest economic damage would be if we got the reputation of protecting frauds. Austrians don't find this necessary and I have spoken with bank managers who also don't find it necessary," he said.

Austria, the last EU holdout on bank secrecy, said on Friday it was ready for talks as long as banking secrecy for Austrians is preserved, and detailed its three main concerns.

Vienna had been isolated on this after Luxembourg changed tack this month.

Austrian banks at times use banking secrecy as a marketing tool, but foreign deposits do not play as much of a role as they do in major offshore centers such as Cyprus and Luxembourg.

EU citizens have about €35 billion in Austrian deposits, a tenth of the total, while foreigners have €53 billion in banks in Austria, the central bank says.

Austria now has banks withhold tax on EU citizens' interest income and returns the money anonymously to home countries.

No blackmail

After weeks of wrangling, Faymann's center-left Social Democrats and their center-right People's Party coalition partners have laid out priorities for EU talks on an accord starting next week.

Finance Minister Maria Fekter, who had taken the hardest line in defense of Austrian banking secrecy, said she supported the joint position, which cites three points of "decisive relevance" for Austria.

Vienna wants negotiations to require an exchange of bank account data at least in line with Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) standards, reveal owners of trusts and mailbox companies, and take into account bilateral tax deals it already struck with Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Those accords preserve bank secrecy and are set to bring in more than €1 billion from mid-2013 from accounts Austrians hold across the borders.

Faymann made a point of saying Austria's concerns were just that, and not conditions for a deal.

"We don't need to blackmail anyone. We ourselves want the exchange of data to make it easier to fight fraud," he said.

"Our own banking secrecy is not affected. Prosecuting international fraud will be fully supported, and English trusts and the Channel Islands will also come into play."

Fekter has campaigned to have tax talks include not just bank accounts, but also trusts and other investment vehicles designed to cloak investors' identities. She has urged Britain and the United States to crack down on money laundering and "tax havens" in their own backyards.

A European Commission spokeswoman gave a cautious welcome to Austria's new position, which it had not yet seen officially.

"If Austria is willing to back the mandate to negotiate a stronger EU-Swiss agreement, then this would be very good news," she said.

EurActiv.com with Reuters

[Baluarte]

Restrospective story:

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Europe closes in on tax havens; Austria agrees to swap bank data

http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20130522&t=2&i=734146743&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=700&pl=300&r=CBRE94L0Y6P00

(Reuters) - Europe moved closer to ending banking secrecy on Wednesday after Austria dropped objections to sharing data on foreign depositors and the EU focused on negotiating a similar agreement with Switzerland.

"It's a bad day for tax cheats," Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann told reporters at a meeting of EU leaders to discuss fighting tax fraud. "We will act jointly and I believe we will manage the exchange of data by the end of the year."

Nearly all EU member states exchange information about which bank account holders receive what interest payments - an agreement known as the Savings Directive.

Luxembourg and Austria had not wanted to reveal the names of account holders to other countries and instead allow banks to withhold tax, but under pressure from their European partners both have now agreed to sign up to the code.

"The wording we have now is good," Faymann said, referring to an EU agreement on bank information exchange to be discussed at the summit. "I can agree with that and it's an important step for Europe."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the deal as an 'enormous step'. "There will finally be an exchange of necessary tax information in the European Union," she said.

Most developed countries share information on taxpayers and depositors "on demand". But since this requires the authorities in the requesting jurisdiction to suspect wrongdoing, it has only limited impact in uncovering unlawful behaviour.

Luxembourg, whose banking system holds deposits many times the size of its economy, has said it will exchange information from 2015 but first wants a similar agreement with neighbouring Switzerland, the globe's biggest offshore centre with $2 trillion of offshore assets.

"Luxembourg is ready to automatically exchange information from January 2015 as long as the European Union goes ahead with its negotiations with Switzerland and other countries," Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said.

Automatic exchange of information makes it easier for tax authorities to spot tax evasion or illicit money flows.

As well as negotiating with Switzerland to bring it into the same regime as the EU's 27 member states, the EU also plans to negotiate with Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra and San Marino, small states with banking secrecy regimes, to try to close off all potential loopholes in Europe.

(Reporting By John O'Donnell and Robert-Jan Bartunek; editing by Rex Merrifield and Ruth Pitchford)