A German amnesty for tax evaders brought in Euros 902 million ($975 million), according to a Bloomberg report.
German banks, which focused efforts on the Cayman Islands and Liechtenstein, said that tax evaders had as much as Euros 300 billion in overseas accounts.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has also made use of a tax amnesty to raise revenue. His government is expecting to bring in EU2.2 billion ($2.4 billion) in 2005 by extending into this year an amnesty on the proceeds of illegal construction work, reported Bloomberg.
The European Union last year agreed a withholding tax under the EU Savings Directive that forces European countries and their territories overseas to disclose details of foreigners’ investment returns to tax authorities in their home countries or tax the gains at source.
The Cayman Islands, a UK Overseas Territory, is expected to have to implement the Savings Directive.