EU advances on savings tax, but Swiss hurdle remains

Britain and the Netherlands told European Union finance ministers on Tuesday their dependent territories had agreed to comply with policies to fight tax evasion, removing one more hurdle for adoption of the new rules.
The planned EU tax rules are expected to help cash-strapped member states such as Germany to dip into a large, untapped pool of money that EU citizens hide abroad.
But problems remain with Switzerland and four other non-EU financial centres, with which the European Union must secure tax deals ahead of June if it wants to apply its hard-fought savings tax directive at the start of 2005, officials said.
"We have made considerable progress in this field. We have reached model agreements with Aruba and the Antilles," Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm told reporters at the sidelines a meeting of 15 finance ministers in Brussels.
Compliance with the new tax rules in British and Dutch dependent territories, all of which are low-tax off-shore centres, is one prerequisite for the rules to come into force.
Britain also announced that its dependencies, which include the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Cayman Islands, had agreed to sign up to the planned EU rules for the taxation of interest on citizens' savings.
EU off-shore centres will be able to choose between sharing banking details with EU states or imposing a withholding tax of up to 35 percent on the interest from savings of EU citizens.
"The Antilles wants to impose a withholding tax and Aruba wants to exchange information," Zalm added.
The announcement shifts the focus to Switzerland, which diplomats said is the toughest nut to crack.
The ministers also discussed a new International Monetary Fund chief after failure late Monday by the 12 euro zone ministers to agree on a new European Central Bank board member.
No country has yet put forward a candidate for the IMF top job, traditionally reserved for a European, but Spanish Economy Minister Rodrigo Rato is seen as a strong candidate.
TAX DEALS NEEDED: Under the hard-fought tax rules, 12 EU states will share banking details of EU citizens. Luxembourg, Belgium and Austria will retain banking secrecy laws but will tax up to 35 percent the income from savings of those who want to remain anonymous.
But the rules will come into place only when the EU signs tax deals with Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Andorra.
Switzerland and the EU agreed last year a draft tax treaty that would introduce a tax on EU savings hidden in the Alpine state without impinging on the country's banking secrecy.