Compliance Corner: Luxembourg

Editorial Staff

24 March 2020

Luxembourg’s parliament has approved new laws to put into force new EU rules that tighten reporting duties on cross-border tax arrangements; it has also agreed to ramp up the fight against money laundering, media reports said.

A parliamentary session was cancelled last week because of the coronavirus pandemic; lawmakers gathered over the weekend to vote on a package of laws, the Luxembourg Times said.

The EU has been hit by a number of money laundering scandals over the past few years, such as in Scandinavia, with Denmark’s Danske Bank hit by revelations of illicit money flows out of the Baltic.

The law package in front of the parliament included the European Commission’s so-called DAC-6 directive, which adds new reporting obligations for lawyers, accountants, auditors, banks and financial intermediaries on cross-border tax arrangements.

Luxembourg’s state council had initially opposed the law, saying it would force the financial services sector to violate professional secrecy obligations. But the law on the table on Saturday added exceptions for lawyers, auditors and accountants.

The Grand Duchy is late in transposing the EU directive into national law, missing a deadline at the end of 2019. The new reporting duties will come into effect from July, reports said.