The European Commission has formally requested Greece to change its tax legislation which in the Commission's view discriminates against funds held abroad by Greek residents. Under the Greek tax amnesty, disclosed funds transferred to a bank account in Greece benefit from a lower rate of tax than those kept abroad. The Commission considers these discriminatory provisions to be incompatible with the freedom to provide services and with the free movement of capital.

Greek taxpayers that voluntarily disclose funds which are held abroad can benefit from a temporary tax amnesty. In addition, if they transfer these disclosed funds to a bank account in Greece for at least a year are meant to pay a 5% tax of the funds while the applicable tax rate is 8% for those funds which are maintained out of Greece.

The Commission considers that these rules dissuade Greek taxpayers from maintaining their disclosed funds in other Member States or EEA countries. Therefore, the rules in question constitute a restriction on the free movement of capital of Article 63 of the TFEU and the freedom to provide services of Article 56 of the TFEU, and the corresponding Articles of the EEA Agreement.

Details are available at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/11/161&format=HTML&aged=0&language=en&guiLanguage=en