EU tax commissars target U.S. (Insider Report).(European Union wants United States financial institutions to collect financial data on non-resident investers)(Brief Article)

In our recent on-scene report from the UN's taxation summit in Mexico (see "March Madness in Monterrey" in our April 22nd issue), we warned that UN global tax proponents are pursuing backdoor strategies, trying to commit the U.S. in principle to international taxes. European Commission official Frits Bolkestein visited Washington in early June, attempting to induce the U.S. to join the EU's "Savings Tax Directive," described by financial analyst Veronique de Rugy as the EU's "proposed savings-tax cartel."

The directive "is designed to stop money from escaping Europe's high-tax economies and fleeing to low-tax economies," writes Rugy, who studies fiscal policy on behalf of the Washington-based Cato Institute. "And since the United States is a low-tax country (compared to places like France), the plan would require U.S. financial institutions to collect private financial data on non-resident investors so it can be turned over to foreign tax collectors. This is an assault on American ...