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EU Tax Commissars Target U.S.

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 back-door 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 sovereignty and it should be rejected."

Though our ever-expanding central government devours nearly 30 percent of our Gross Domestic Product, America remains "the best tax haven in the world," Rugy points out. "Low taxes and a strong commitment to financial privacy combine to attract more than $9 trillion in foreign capital to the U.S. economy. This inflow of money is a key determinant of American prosperity because this money is put to work for the nation and produces more jobs, higher standards of living, and general prosperity."

Extortionate tax rates in the socialist European Union have driven many productive Europeans to invest in the U.S., and "high-tax nations resent this competition, which is why they are lobbying the U.S. government to support the ‘Savings Tax Directive.’" But just as important is the effort to lure the United States into multilateral "tax cooperation" schemes of any sort — all of which would offer precedents toward imposing direct taxes by the UN.