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Swiss Agree to Give Offshore Tax Data to U.S.
January 31, 2012
[ by Melanie Gretchen ]
Switzerland is coming over to the U.S. side, now that this neutral country has agreed to provide the U.S. government with access to tens of thousands of pages of encrypted data. U.S. authorities had set a 1/30/12 deadline for banks under investigation - Credit Suisse, Julius Baer, Basler Kantonalbank, and others - to deliver data on their U.S. offshore business or face possible prosecution.
A spokesperson for the Swiss Finance Ministry said that the Swiss government had previously handed over to the United States encrypted data on bank employees who served American clients suspected of tax evasion. The information contained information on their U.S. businesses, including names of client advisers.
Now - in "stage two," so to speak - the European state agreed to provide the key that will enable the U.S. to decipher the encrypted information, once a legal dispute is settled.
Urgency. Only last week, Wegelin, Switzerland's oldest bank split after the U.S. investigation led to the indictment of 3 employees for selling tax-evasion services to wealthy Americans. Finance minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, in Davos, Switzerland, last week with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, said she hopes to reach a deal in the following months, toward preventing a repeat situation.
Thus far, these tax evasion matters have cost UBS $780 million, which it paid to settle U.S. tax charges in 2009 - while also turning over the names of 4,500 clients.
Conditions. The Finance Ministry said it could only transfer non-encrypted bank data in individual cases when the U.S. authorities had made a request under existing double taxation treaties, and when the person accused had also broken Swiss law.
Swiss banking secrecy has come under fire around the world recently as dwindling economies have prompted governments to seek to crack down on tax evasion.
Set course. Going forward, Switzerland is trying to get U.S. investigations into 11 banks dropped in return for the payment of fines and the transfer of names of U.S. clients suspected of dodging taxes. In addition, it's trying to defend its tradition of strict bank secrecy.
Neverthless, Martin Naville, CEO of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce, said the delivery of encrypted data was an attempt by the Swiss government to show willingness in the talks. “We are in a process of negotiations, not at war,” he told Swiss television. “In negotiations, you have to give something from time to time.”
For more details, go to [Reuters, 1/31/12].
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