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24. 09. 09. - 13:00

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24. 09. 09. - 13:00

OECD expects more from Austria

By Lisa Chapman

OECD officials have called on Austria to continue renegotiating tax treaties following its removal of the country from a "grey list" of tax havens.

Austria was taken off the list earlier this week after it had renegotiated more than 12 double taxation treaties and information-exchange agreements with other countries.

But Pascal Saint-Amans, the head of OECD’s division for cooperation on tax affairs, said today (Thurs): "We are confident that Austria will continue its efforts."

He called Austria’s removal from the grey list "good news" but warned that it must continue the process of renegotiating more double taxation treaties and information-exchange agreements and to carry out exchanges of information.

"We know Austria is doing so," he said, adding Austria needed to renegotiate such agreements with important trading partners like Germany.

The OECD controversially drew up a list of countries in April that had promised to comply with its guidelines on the fight against tax fraud but had not yet done so.

Under the renegotiated agreements information about foreigners’ bank accounts in Austria must be provided when there is "well-founded suspicion" of money-laundering, tax-evasion or other financial crimes by their owners instead of convictions for such crimes, as was the case before.

But the provision does not apply to accounts of foreigners who pay Austrian taxes.

The countries with which Austria has renegotiated treaties and agreements include Andorra, Gibraltar, Bahrain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, Monaco, Denmark, San Marino, St. Vincent, Singapore and Norway.

Social Democrat (SPÖ) Andreas Schieder, state secretary for finance at the finance ministry, said earlier this month it was unlikely Austria would be forced to provide information about accounts owned by foreigners "automatically."

The European Union has said Austria will have to do so if and when Switzerland does, but there is no indication it will agree to do so anytime soon.

The OECD’s lists can be seen at www.oecd.org

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