11 January 2016

Draft report on the proposal for a Council decision on the conclusion to the Agreement with the Republic of San Marino on taxation

The ECON has issued a draft legislative resolution on the proposal for a Council decision on the conclusion of the amending protocol to the agreement between the European Community and the Republic of San Marino providing for measures on taxation of savings income in the form of interest payments.

The European Parliament [...]

1. Approves conclusion of the Amending Protocol to the Agreement;

2. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States and of the Republic of San Marino.

Under the new agreement, the EU and San Marino will automatically exchange information on the financial accounts of each other's residents, starting in 2017. The aim is to address situations where a taxpayer seeks to hide capital representing income or assets for which taxes have not been paid.

The agreement aims at ensuring that San Marino applies strengthened measures that are equivalent to the EU legal framework, as upgraded in December 2014 (amending the Directive on Administrative Cooperation, "DAC2") and that comply with the procedures for automatic exchange of financial account information promoted by the 2014 OECD Global standard.

In line with that OECD standard, further provisions aim at securing that exchanged information concerns not only income such as interest and dividends, but also account balances and proceeds from the sale of financial assets. Unconditional exchange of information upon request must also be provided under the new agreement, in accordance with the latest developments of the OECD and EU work in this area.

As a result of the new agreement, tax administrations in the Member States and in San Marino will be able to:

- identify correctly and unequivocally the taxpayers concerned;

- administer and enforce their tax laws in cross-border situations;

- assess the likelihood of tax evasion being perpetrated;

- avoid unnecessary further investigations.

The EU and San Marino have agreed for the agreement to have a provisional entry into application on 1 January 2016, pending the completion of their respective internal procedures for its formal entry into force, and your rapporteur strongly urges that the agreement is concluded and ratified as soon as possible thereafter in order to keep the transitional phase as short as possible.

Full draft report

© European Parliament