Luxembourg: Officials increase transparency in tax dealings

Luxembourg has vowed to offer details of its tax agreements made with foreign corporations to governments that request the information, reports say.

The nation’s finance ministry announced Tuesday that it has always been willing to share such information and has been committed to transparency. Luxembourg has been met with criticism since refusing to release tax files to EU investigators as the European Commission investigates the nation’s tax relationship with foreign firms.

”The rulings issued by the Luxembourg tax authorities are not, and have never been, secret,” the ministry said, but reports say the nation has rejected the EU’s demands for documents because the Commission is not a tax authority.

Since the so-called “LuxLeaks” revelations, in which a slew of documents allegedly revealed billions of dollars worth of tax breaks Luxembourg granted to foreign corporations, European Commission president and onetime Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker has been on the defense. The Commission’s competition arm continues to investigate the matter on suspicion the tax breaks – also found in other EU member states – could constitute illegal and unfair state aid.

Full content: Reuters

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