Hong Kong to rebuff EU tax plea

Hong Kong is extremely unlikely to provide details of potential tax-avoiding
individuals residing in its territory to the European Union, it has warned.

Hong Kong and Singapore have been targeted to apply the EU’s July 2005 Tax
Savings Directive, which taxes the interest on European’s offshore savings.

Those that follow the directive can exchange information with EU tax
authorities or levy a withholding tax to pass back to the European home state of
the saver.

Hong Kong deputy secretary for financial services and the Treasury, Martin
Glass, said the territory was legally and constitutionally constrained in its
ability to share information with other tax authorities, the Financial
Times reported.

He said legislation would need to be enacted to allow the territory to
operate under the directive, which would be a significant departure from its
existing legislation.