Luxembourg has been moving enhanced transparency.

 

03.04.2015

Over the last few years, Luxembourg has been going towards enhanced transparency in tax matters and has implemented a number of concrete measures in this respect. The most visible – and symbolic – change in the short term is certainly the generalization of the automatic exchange of information on interest income paid to EU individuals, within the frame of the European Savings Directive, applicable as from 1st January 2015 (subsequent to the abolishment of the 35% withholding tax previously levied on such income when the beneficiary had not explicitly requested the paying agent to apply the automatic exchange of information). The year 2015 will also be the year of the first automatic exchange of information related to U.S. reportable accounts under FATCA (exchange of information ultimately with the U.S. via the Luxembourg tax authorities).

 

That said, the focus in 2015 now shifts to ensure that companies will have the right systems in place to comply with the new OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and its concrete translation into the EU law (the future revised Directive of administrative cooperation) that will apply in Luxembourg (as well as in many other countries) as from 2017 based on tax information of 2016.