The UK is in the process of piloting a multi lateral tax information exchange agreement between the four largest EU members, France , Spain, Germany and Italy. It is based on the model being adopted by the USA's FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) which the 5 countries agreed on with the USA last year.
It is being implemented primarily to minimise cross border tax evasion and for wider powers to exchange information. And, of course, the hope is that all other EU member countries will be persuaded to join the big 5 as part of a trend towards global tax information sharing arrangements.
The big question is, if someone is living in France and the UK receive tax information about this person, even though it does not directly relate to the UK because they are not resident there, would they still share the information to the French authorities? My guess would be yes although we are very unlikely to know for sure. However, the continued media coverage of corporate and individual tax avoidance at the moment suggests to me that the aim is to have a full and open network of tax information that will be freely available for any authority should they choose to access it.
Welcome to the United States of Europe.
If you think that this may affect you and you would like to know how to comply with Italian law whilst limiting your tax liabilities you can contact me on gareth.horsfall@spectrum-ifa.com or call me on 3336492356.
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