On October 14, 2014 the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of EU has adopted the agreement on introduction of the expanded directive about automatic exchange of information between tax authorities of the European countries which would allow to spot tax evasion or illicit money flows more easily.
If former rules of the directive obliged EU countries to exchange only limited number of data, according to new rules all information regarding EU citizens will become transparent including account balances and income from sales of financial assets.
The end of a bank secrecy or full tax transparency for EU countries will come into force in 2017, exception is Austria, which will join the process one year later.
Switzerland, Monaco and Liechtenstein will sign the agreement with EU authorities on the exchange of information about bank customers before the end of 2014.