08. 02. 10. - 16:00

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08. 02. 10. - 16:00

FPÖ leader faces tax evader protection accusations

Freedom Party (FPÖ) boss Heinz-Christian Strache has been accused of trying to protect tax evaders.

Greens’ finance spokesman Werner Kogler said yesterday (Sun): "FPÖ chief Strache has publicly assumed the new role of protector of tax evaders."

Kogler added: "It's an affront to plead for protection of tax evaders at a time when there are billions of unpaid back taxes."

Kogler was referring to Strache’s recent call for protection of banking secrecy in Austria.

"Strache is unwilling to do anything for the little man who has to pay taxes when countries like Switzerland are a refuge for tax evaders. The FPÖ leader has taken the side of big tax fraudsters and thereby defends the loss of billions in the budget that small taxpayers must compensate for," Kogler added.

What was necessary, Koger said, was protection of data in bank customers’ accounts vis-à-vis third parties, not protection of tax evaders.

Whereas the Greens want to put an end to banking secrecy, the People’s Party (ÖVP) does not.

ÖVP Finance Minister Josef Pröll said yesterday that banking secrecy was not an issue since Austria had implemented the internationally-accepted standards of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

He added that banking secrecy in Austrian differed substantially from that in Switzerland and so was not affected by public debate about it.

German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble predicted yesterday in an interview in newspaper NZZ am Sonntag that banking secrecy would soon become a thing of the past in Europe.

Austria came under the OECD’s fire last autumn for its dilatoriness in renegotiating tax treaties in order to get off its "grey list" of tax haven countries.

Austria was finally taken off the list last September 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, warned that Austria had to continue the process of renegotiating more double-taxation treaties and information exchange agreements and to carry out exchanges of information.

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

Austrian Times

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