At their turn the Switzerland the Luxembourg and the Austria surrendered Friday to the pressures that were correct on the eve of Andorra the Liechtenstein and the Belgium read the Echos from March 13

At their turn, the Switzerland, the Luxembourg and the Austria surrendered Friday to the pressures that were correct on the eve of Andorra, the Liechtenstein and the Belgium (read the "Echos" from March 13). In these times of lower tax revenues, due to global crisis, the g-20 has made the fight against evasion tax one of its priorities and he threatened to publicly to index the uncooperative countries to investigators of the tax authorities of other countries. This Luxembourg led Berne and Vienna to announce that they comply now standards in the tax matters of the OECD (Organization for economic cooperation and development), particularly as defined in article 26 of the model convention.

However, all three were held to emphasize that they would retain the principle of bank secrecy, which is not helpful that in only the tax evaders (it allows individuals to protect their property of expropriations carried out by criminal regimes, Bern Recalling that its banking secrecy had for example resisted the nazis). "Banking secrecy is not inconsistent with the rules of the OECD", considered the Luxembourg Treasury Minister, Luc Frieden, "The Luxembourg will therefore maintain its secret banking as instrument for the protection of privacy". In practice, resolving go to Canossa, the Switzerland, the Luxembourg and the Austria are committed to accept to deliver information to other countries "at case by case" and "demand practical and justified" or "on the basis of concrete evidence supporting the suspicion". "It is not question of a direct or systematic access to Bank data," said the Austrian Minister of finance Josef Pröll. It is excluded at this stage to let foreign countries attend "fishing for information" by asking the bank statement of all their citizens with an offshore account. If the Bank UBS agreed recently to deliver the details of the Swiss accounts of 300 US nationals to avoid be charged by the justice of complicity in tax evasion, she refuses to do the same for 52,000 accounts of American nationals, for which it considers that the suspicions of the U.S. tax authorities are insufficient.

Information exchange

With this historic concession, the Switzerland was expected Saturday to escape the inconvenience placed on the blacklist, the g-20 adopted the principle this weekend and that could be disclosed at the London Summit, April 2. The President of the Federal Council, Hans Rudolf Merz, claimed to have received assurances to this effect from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, while Washington actually welcomed this decision. Nicolas Sarkozy awarded the lifting of bank secrecy "of the France and the Germany voluntarism". Paris and Berlin would lose 20 to 50 billion euros in tax revenue each year because of banking havens. German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück has estimated that these concessions were insufficient and should must be translated into facts.

The French President added that all tax havens were to follow that route, including Monaco, very linked to the France. Monaco also announced Friday that it would be willing to "enhance cooperation" in the field of the fight against tax fraud. Jersey signed a dozen bilateral agreements, including one soon with Paris, along the same lines, it would soon practically paradise Bank in Europe, since Gibraltar, Guernsey and the Isle of Man also suggested that they would not remain aloof from the movement.

Among the some 20 paradise Bank identified in the Caribbean or in the Pacific, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands have recently expressed their intention to participate also in exchange of tax information. Fear to see capital refugees home to escape into other tax havens, the Luxembourg demanded Friday that the principles that it would apply now are respected not only in the rest of Europe but by third countries also. Because the Swiss press said this weekend that this fight against banking havens "must be understood also in terms of the competitive battle between world markets".