Asian financial centres Hong Kong and Singapore may be included within the scope of the European Union's Savings Tax Directive, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Many offshore financial centres including Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino and Switzerland as well as the UK Crown Dependencies have already been roped into the directive. The majority of these centres have opted for a transitional withholding tax of 15 per cent rather than going for the option of sharing account information with the client’s home state. The European Commission has been worried that investors will simply sidestep the directive by ploughing money into Hong Kong and Singapore. According to the WSJ report, the commission is planning to broaden existing tax agreements between Hong Kong, Singapore and EU member states so that Europe could request cooperation and information on potential EU tax evaders when avoidance of European taxes is being probed. Neither governments of Hong Kong and Singapore have confirmed whether discussions are taking place with EC officials to extend the tax agreement, but they did confirm in statements that they were already cooperating with European countries under existing agreements. High net worth investors are using other techniques to by-pass the directive. As the directive only applies to individuals, more companies and trusts are being used as savings vehicles.