Bank Secrecy law not important for over half

Only 32 percent of Austrians regard the bank secrecy as personally important. This is the result of a survey of the Gallup institute for the “WirtschaftsBlatt”. 71 percent think that Austria is no tax haven.

The results were identical nationwide in all age groups and professions. It is also remarkable that even big income earners do not attach great importance to the bank secrecy law.

More than two thirds of the population (68 percent) think that it will not be possible to keep this controversial privilege in the European Union.

Georg Wiedenhofer, managing director of Gallup, stated that Austrians are of the opinion that there is no longer anonymity like there was in the past. Moreover, 71 percent of the people asked think that Austria is no tax haven.

Mr Wiedenhofer’s conclusion is that there is the impression that politicians keep the urgency of the problem artificially high.