Luxembourg Agrees To Help Fight Tax Cheats

BRUSSELS (AP) – Luxembourg says it will exchange information with the rest of Europe to help fight tax evasion.

The initiative, which is to start in 2015, follows international pressure on Luxembourg to end its policy of banking secrecy that critics say has helped people hide money from tax authorities.

Luxembourg, a tiny country of half a million people, boasts a huge financial industry with more than 3 trillion euros ($4 trillion) in assets.

The government said Wednesday it will set up an automatic exchange of information about interest payments made to European Union citizens with bank accounts in Luxembourg “so as to ensure taxation according to the laws” of the customer’s home country.

The move is likely to increase pressure on Austria, the EU’s other holdout on providing tax information.