The Austrian Supreme Administrative Court held in its decision of 17 December 2001, 97/14/0105, that the mutual assistance provision of Art. 12 of the Austro-US Inheritance and Gift Tax Treaty does not constitute an appropriate legal base for supplying bank information to the US tax authorities in the frame of a „Grand Jury Investigation". Art. 12 is formed according to para. 1 and 2 of Article 26 of the OECD-Model Tax Convention and is not only applicable to inheritance taxes but to all taxes. Like Art. 26 of the OECD-Model also Art. 12 of the Austro-US Inheritance tax treaty permits explicitly the disclosure of information received under the terms of the treaty to authorities concerned with the prosecution in respect of taxes. The Austrian tax administration therefore believed that bank information had to be collected for the US tax administration in order to be eventually passed on to the persons concerned with the prosecution process. This view was based on the understanding that the treaty contains the obligation to obtain for the treaty partner all information which could have been procured also for the purposes of Austrian taxes. It should be borne in mind in that context th...