Andorran lawmakers have agreed to end banking secrecy in the Pyrenees mountains principality, approving automatic sharing of information on accounts held by non-residents. Banking accounts for 20% of the economy in the nation of barely 90,000 citizens nestled in the Pyrenees between France and Spain. Andorra was briefly on the OECD’s “grey list” of non-cooperative tax havens drawn up as part of a crackdown on tax evasion after the global financial crisis. Automatic transfer of banking account data is becoming the international standard to help reduce tax evasion. Andorra follows Monaco, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and San Marino in signing a deal with the EU, which wants to cut down on fraud and tax evasion via neighbouring countries.

Source: The Guardian December 02, 2016 05:48 UTC