Algirdas Semeta, EU’s Commissioner for Tax wants Australian PM to use G20 Presidency to lean on Asia-Pacific financial centres to reduce bank secrecy & share tax information.
In an exclusive in today’s Australian Financial Review, journalist Geoff Winestock reports that Commissioner Semeta (who is currently in Australia) wants Prime Minister Abbott to convince Singapore, HK, Taiwan & Macau to reduce their bank secrecy provisions and to share tax information with other authorities. Commissioner Semeta is due to meet today with Australia’s Treasurer Joe Hockey and the two are likely to discuss protection of the tax base against multinationals that shift profits to offshore financial centres.
Commissioner Semeta said “Australia could find a way to get all these countries on board”. He also appeared to suggest that Australia needed to use its 6-month Presidency of the G20 to help facilitate the introduction of a global standard on “automatic” exchange of tax information by the early 2006 target date.
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