Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion of the Amending Protocol to the Agreement with San Marino providing for measures equivalent to those laid down in Directive on taxation of savings income in the form of interest payments

Author (Corporate)
Series Title
Series Details (2015) 518 final
Publication Date 21/04/2016
Content Type

Further information:

In order to minimise costs and administrative burdens both for tax administrations and for economic operators, it became crucial to ensure that the amendment of the existing Savings Agreement with San Marino is in line with EU and international developments. This aims at increasing tax transparency in Europe and would become the legal basis for implementing the OCDE Global Standard on automatic exchange of information between San Marino and the European Union (EU).

Background information:

Following the adoption of Council Directive 2003/48/EC [the Savings Directive] and in order to preserve the level playing field of economic operators, the EU signed Agreements with non-EU countries from across Europe providing for measures equivalent to those laid down in the Directive, including San Marino.

Following the adoption of a proposal to update the Savings Directive, the Commission adopted in June 2011 a recommendation for a mandate to initiate negotiations with those countries to upgrade the Agreements in line with international developments and to ensure that those countries continue to apply measures equivalent to those in the EU. In May 2013, the Council of the European Union reached an agreement on the Negotiating Mandate by concluding that negotiations should be aligned with the developments at global level where it was agreed to promote automatic exchange of information as an international standard.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was mandated by the G20 to develop a single global standard for automatic exchange of financial account information (Global Standard). The Global Standard was released by the OECD Council in July 2014.

On the basis of a proposal presented by the Commission in June 2013, the Council on 9 December 2014 adopted Directive 2014/107/EU amending Directive 2011/16/EU and extending the mandatory automatic exchange of information between EU tax authorities to a full range of financial items in accordance with the Global Standard. As Directive 2014/107/EU is generally broader in scope than Directive 2003/48/EC, the Commission adopted in March 2015 a proposal to repeal Directive 2003/48/EC.

The European Commission proposed on 21 October 2015 the conclusion of a protocol amending the Agreement with San Marino providing for measures equivalent to those laid down in Council Directive 2003/48/EC on taxation of savings income.

Additionally, the Commission also proposed the signing of that Amending Protocol:

+ Proposal for a Council Decision on the signing of the Amending Protocol to the Agreement between the European Community and San Marino providing for measures equivalent to those laid down in Council Directive 2003/48/EC

The Protocol was signed on 8 December 2015, marking the end of bank secrecy between San Marino and the European Union. The European Parliament endorsed the agreement on 25 February 2016, during its plenary session. On 21 April 2016, the Council of the European Union approved the conclusion of an agreement.

Source Link Link to Main Source http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2015:518:FIN
Related Links
EUR-Lex: COM(2015)518: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:518:FIN
Council of the European Union: Press Release, 08.12.15: EU-San Marino taxation agreement signed in joint effort to improve tax compliance http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/12/08-ecofin-eu-san-marino-taxation-agreement/
European Parliament: Press Release, 25.02.16: Ending EU citizens' bank secrecy in San Marino http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/20160223IPR15509/
European Commission: Fighting tax evasion: EU and the Republic of San Marino sign new tax transparency agreement http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-15-6275_en.htm
Council of the European Union: Press Release, 21.04.16: San Marino taxation agreement approved by EU http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/04/21-san-marino-taxation-agreement-approved-by-eu/

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