In March 2009 Austria has withdrawn its reservation on Article 26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention, thereby signalling that it is now fully committed to the new standard of transparency and exchange of information as provided for in paragraph 5 of the Model Convention. Likewise, commitments were also expressed by Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxemburg. In the course of this decision which was driven by recent international developments (economic crisis, spectacular tax fraud cases in Switzerland and Liechtenstein) Austria introduced domestic legislation which grants tax authorities full access to bank information in cases of requests for information from foreign tax administrations based upon international instruments which follow the new OECD standard on transparency and exchange of information. This decision of the Austrian Parliament can be seen as a landmark decision which could only be reached by a qualified majority. The new law overrides the still existing barriers of bank secrecy law which provide for access to bank information for tax authorities only in the course of pending penal proceedings concerning tax evasion. These provisions still apply in mere domestic situations bu...