Making the best of an unwelcome situation

offshore

The Savings Tax Directive is a compromised, easily-avoided and expensive piece of legislation and the final impact on investors will not be that great

When Council Directive 2003/48/EC, covering taxation of savings income in the form of interest payments, was adopted on 3 June 2003, there was much to celebrate within the European Union (EU) Commission. After all, they had been trying for 20 or more years to put in place a mechanism that would prevent EU citizens evading the payment of tax on their savings income by depositing money outside their country of residence. At last they were going to put a stop to it, were they not? No longer would it be possible for enterprising tax evaders to travel to places like Luxembourg with suitcases fu...