EU: Portuguese Tax Amnesty
The European Commission considers that the 2005 Portuguese tax amnesty was contrary to EC Law because it provided for regularisation at a preferential penalty rate of 2.5% for investments in Portuguese government bonds (instead of 5% in any other assets).
It is the opinion of the Commission that the law called “Tax amnesty for undeclared funds held abroad (RERT)” approved by the Portuguese Parliament in 2005 constituted a restriction on the free movement of capital guaranteed by the EC Treaty.
Further information on the reasoned opinion is available at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/681&format=HTML&aged=0&language=en&guiLanguage=en.