Combining Dutch presumptive capital income tax and US qualified intermediaries to set forth a new system of international savings taxation

Beyond the traditional debates over information exchange vs flat taxation at source, legislative advances have produced interesting innovations and suggestions concerning how to tax international savings. We examine some of these advances, which we then use to set forth and investigate a proposal for European and international savings taxation. That proposition combines the outcome of a recent Dutch reform and lessons from the US qualified intermediaries mechanism. We show that such a system exhibits the same desirable properties as exchange of information, but potentially at reduced compliance cost, and is sustainable within a repeated game framework.