The European Union countries once again failed to agree on new tax-evasion legislation because of resistance from Luxembourg.
Luxembourg, which benefitted from a secretive banking culture, has been blocking agreement on the law since 2008 together with Austria, which too offers secrecy to foreign depositors.
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Luxembourg has been successful in blocking the legislation because the decision required unanimous approval.
For years, Luxembourg has been insisting that it would back the proposed bill only if non-EU banking hubs within Europe, particularly Switzerland, also sign up.
Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna said he could not vote in favour, asking for the matter to be decided by next week’s summit of EU leaders.
Algirdas Semeta, EU taxation Commissioner, said failure was "disappointing" because the legislation on an EU-wide automatic exchange of information on interest gains from bank deposits would enable governments to "identify and chase up tax evaders."
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By GlobalDataIt is estimated that tax fraud and companies’ cross-border tax avoidance schemes cost the bloc’s 28- governments an estimated EUR1 trillion annually.
