EU finance ministers, seeking to combat tax evasion, agreed to crack down on investors who try to escape taxes by stashing money in banks abroad.
Twelve EU countries will report foreign savers' interest income to their home tax authorities, while three -- Luxembourg, Austria and Belgium -- plus non-EU member Switzerland will impose withholding taxes that start at 15 percent next year and rise to 35 percent in 2010.
Tuesday's agreement, affecting accounts at lenders from Deutsche Bank AG to Credit Suisse Group, ends a stalemate that dates back to the 1980s. The accord will lead to higher taxes in Europe at a time when the slowest growth in a decade is squeezing government revenue. Tax lawyers said investors may find loopholes.
"It's very inappropriate for economies in Europe," said Edward Troup, head of tax at London-based law firm Simmons & Simmons. "It's not a sensible system for an efficient global tax structure because the fact the rate is so high will encourage evasion."
The final agreement is contingent on settling what EU Financial Services Commissioner Frits Bolkestein called "loose ends" with Switzerland.
Europe's taxes are already among the world's steepest, leading investors to move money across borders to defy the taxman.
The average European works until July 24 to pay his or her annual tax bill, compared with May 16 in the US, according to the European employers federation.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown abandoned his quest for a global bank-interest reporting policy that would have required financial centers to disclose foreign depositors' identities and interest earnings to their home governments.
"Those tax rates are right," Brown said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)