Those interested in the ideas circulating through the European Union regarding tax evasion/avoidance and anti-money laundering should read the draft recommendations drawn up by the PANA Committee [*] to the Council and the Commission.

The draft includes interesting ideas, like:

18. Calls on the Commission to clarify what is illegal and what is legal, even if immoral, in the framework of tax evasion and tax avoidance practices;

The Committee has high hopes of registers and does not worry about privacy risks or IT-problems (BO = beneficial owner):

25. Stresses the need for publically accessible beneficial ownership (BO) registers and standardised registers of BOs to prevent anonymity of ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs); calls furthermore for the creation of an EU BO register;
26. Calls furthermore for the creation of a global company register and of a central register of bank accounts accessible to FIUs and national law enforcement bodies;

Many recommendations regard the so called intermediaries. New is the phenomenon of the wealth consultant:

41. Notes that wealth management remains a largely unregulated profession and that binding international rules and standards should be established to better regulate and define this profession; calls in this respect on the European Commission to take the initiative in all relevant international fora for the creation of such standards and rules;

The Committee does not accept the self-regulatory bodies of lawyers (that only for a minor part have obligations under anti-money laundering legislation):

42. Urges for a shift from self-regulation to appropriate supervision and state controlled regulation for currently self-regulated professions via a separate and independent national regulator/supervisor;

Tax professionals are mentioned in many recommendations, for instance in:

47. Underlines the need for an EU certification of intermediaries to practice as tax professionals; calls in this connection for the possibility to withdraw licences if they are proved to promote or enable tax evasion, aggressive tax planning and money laundering;

Even the accounting requirements come by:

55. Stresses that with a view to improve international cooperation, audit and accounting requirements should be coordinated at the global level, so as to discourage accounting and auditing firms in designing offshore structures; believes in this respect that a better implementation of international accounting standards should be regarded as an efficient tool;

The draft shows that Europe strikes while the iron is hot. When all these ideas are accepted, bureaucracy will flower.

[*] Committee of Inquiry to investigate alleged contraventions and maladministration in the application of Union law in relation to money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion