My Orchids. Phalaneopsis coming out of the shadows. Photo ET
This is a surprising interview.
Clearly, any tax haven will have disappeared within a few years. I have advocated for that for a long time. However the timing, the place and actually the context of these news are questionable. Is this the whole government's position now? Or are we going to see backpedaling tomorrow?
Why do you do this in a German newspaper? (Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung). Why not debating this in Parliament?
As for the substance, I beg to differ on some points:
- Luxembourg should negotiate the abandoning of banking secrecy There can be a number of legitimate interests as a quid pro quo.
- What about the foreign nationals who were hiding in the tax haven? Shouldn't Luxembourg obtain an amnesty for those? As a thank you. To my knowledge they paid 30% of withholding tax.
- Luxembourg does and will be in tax competition with others in the future.
- Luxembourg misses the point when it comes to promote private banking for foreigners even after the secrecy is gone. Being in another jurisdiction is a shelter from overbearing governments worldwide, and makes confiscation more difficult. The corollary is that the foreign account holder can trust the Luxembourg justice in case of trouble, such as with Madoff. Way to go.
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