Liechtenstein and Britain have signed an agreement to encourage British clients with secret accounts in the Alpine principality to voluntarily disclose billions of pounds of untaxed money.The deal affects about 5,000 investors.
Luxembourg and Liechtenstein announced plans on Friday to conclude a treaty in line with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's rules on tax reporting. Both powers are under pressure to revise their laws on banking secrecy.
Tyre maker Michelin, oil firm Total and sports firm Adidas are suspected of evading French taxes via accounts in the Alpine principality of Liechtenstein, French prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Less than three weeks from the G20 summit, several countries have announced that they will relax their banking secrecy laws. Christian Stoffaës, a professor at Paris-Dauphine University, comments on the situation.
Bowing to international pressure and accepting OECD standards on measures to counter tax offences, Liechtenstein is ready to exchange information with foreign governments to combat tax cheats, the principality said in a statement.
Prime Minister Otmar Hasler's centre-right Progressive Citizens Party (FBP) lost out to its coalition partner, the Fatherland Union (VU), which gained an absolute majority of 13 seats in the 25-seat parliament.
The tax row between Germany and Liechtenstein has led the latter's royal family to suspend any loans of art works from its collections. The Alpine state also declined to take part in an exhibition in Munich.
The United States, Australia and Spain are among the latest countries to have joined the global hunt for tax evaders using Lichtenstein to avoid paying tax at home.
French tax authorities are investigating hundreds of people possibly involved in tax dodging through bank accounts in Liechtenstein, joining their British, German and Dutch counterparts in the crackdown.
According to the British press, UK's tax authority paid an informant 100,000 pounds ($196,500) for the bank details of scores of wealthy Britons in Liechtenstein. (Report: P. Hall)
