The transposition of the tax evasion Directive on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation into national law was delayed in Belgium, Greece, Finland (concerning the Province of Åland), Italy and Poland.
On 20 June, the European Commission (EC) asked by the five EU Member States to notify the transposition of the tax evasion directive into national law as soon as possible. EC stressed through the press release, that all Member States had a legal obligation to start applying this Directive from 1 January 2013. However, the specific governments have not informed the Commission of the transposition of the Directive into their national legislation. If the EU counties, fail to establish the EU legislation, they will be referred to the EU’s Court of Justice.
The tax evasion directive on Administrative Cooperation contains many provisions that will make a fundamental difference to the efficiency and effectiveness of national administrations in tracking down tax evaders. The EU legislation prevents national governments from refusing a request for information on the basis that the data is held by a financial institution.
Moreover, it is under the Administrative Cooperation Directive that automatic exchange of information between tax authorities will be considerably extended in the future. In the already agreed tax evasion directive, available information will be automatically exchange on income from employment, immovable property, directors' fees, pensions and life insurance from 1 January 2015.
Then the European Commissioner for Taxation, Algirdas Šemeta had commented. “With today's proposal, Member States will be better equipped to assess and collect the taxes they are due, while the EU will be well positioned to push for higher standards of tax good governance globally. It will be another powerful weapon in our arsenal to lead a strong attack against tax evasion.”
At this point we should emphasise that the Greek black market economy increased during 2012, and according to the Institute of Economic Affairs it reached to €46.4 billion (24 per cent of Greek GDP).
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