Merkel tries to calm tempers in Swiss tax dispute
By Madeline Chambers
BERLIN, Feb 8 (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Switzerland’s president have agreed that a dispute over stolen Swiss bank account data which Germany wants to buy should not harm ties between the neighbours, her spokesman said on Monday.
Merkel, who spoke to President Doris Leuthard on Saturday in an effort to calm tempers, also recieved assurances Switzerland would continue talks on a double taxation deal that would bring Switzerland into line with OECD standards.
Switzerland’s large private banking industry has been shaken in the last week by German politicians saying they would pay for data on clients of Swiss banks who may have been evading German taxes even if the information was obtained illegally.
“(Merkel and Leuthard) agreed that good neighbourly relations should not be damaged by this ongoing issue,” Merkel’s spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told a news conference.
German media have reported the data could lead authorities to a 400 million euro tax windfall but the row has also raised the possibility of a diplomatic spat. Swiss politicians have attacked Germany’s plans, one even likening it to bank robbery.
Germany is Switzlerland’s main trading partner and home to a large client base for Swiss private banks.
Switzerland, France settle dispute over tax records
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Switzerland and France settled a row over stolen bank records on Wednesday that was blocking a treaty aimed at helping Paris catch tax cheats.
Switzerland said in December it would freeze the tax treaty talks after French authorities obtained tax-sensitive client information from a former HSBC employee, which it said helped identify 3,000 suspected French tax evaders.
“We have found an agreement,” Swiss Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz said after talks with French Budget Minister Eric Woerth on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum meeting.
“France has agreed not to use stolen data when asking for (tax) information,” he said during a visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, an outspoken critic of tax havens, to address the Davos conference.
A French official said Paris would continue to use the HSBC data in prosecuting tax offenders, but confirmed it would not use the records to seek information on account holders from Switzerland under the agreement.
Both sides said there were still some details to be sorted out with regards to a letter accompanying the accord reached on Wednesday, but Merz said it should be sorted out within days.
Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said she had asked France to hand the data back because it was obtained illegally, but Paris defended its decision, saying it had not broken any French laws.
UBS client wins Swiss appeal against data handover, tax deal in question
ZURICH, Jan 22 (Reuters) – A client of Swiss bank UBS won an appeal to prevent her account data being handed over to U.S. authorities as part of a deal to give details on 4,450 clients to the U.S. taxman, a court said.
The Swiss administrative court said on Friday the existing double taxation agreement with the United States only allowed for data to be disclosed in cases of “fraud or the like”.
While the pilot case throws doubt on whether Switzerland will be able to hand over all of the 4,450 accounts the United States wants, an alternative criterion allowing for the deal to stand if at least 10,000 clients come forward voluntarily could make this irrelevant.
INTERVIEW-Bahamas not planning to change offshore laws -PM
By Tom Brown MIAMI, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Bahamas will cooperate with specific investigations into suspected tax evaders and fraudsters but will not change its bank secrecy laws to allow “fishing” in its offshore finance sector by foreign investigators, the country’s prime minister said on Tuesday. (more…)
UBS tax deal may pave way for bank’s recovery
By Jason Rhodes ZURICH, Aug 18 (Reuters) – Details of a landmark settlement of the U.S. tax case against Swiss bank UBS are expected this week, which should help the bank restore its image and open the way for the Swiss state to sell its UBS stake. (more…)
article in a French newspaper.
“The French Government announced today that it will be meeting with it’s counterpart in the USA, the Internal Revenue Service, to make a demand on the US to release the names of it’s French citizens that have accounts in US banks. ‘French citizens have been evading taxes for years by hiding money in secret US Bank accounts’ says Pierre Ranault. ‘Our citizens pay no tax in the US on any gains made on those investments.’ The French Government is using the pressure established by the US(IRS)against the Swiss Banks as a precedent for the action. ‘We must collect the taxes due on those secret US Bank accounts’ says Ranault. The IRS refused comment, but a media source commented that foreign citizens have about 2 trillion dollars in US investments and that if the foreign citizens panic and “take their money and run”, it could be a big problem for the US banking industry.
(this is fiction, but it could happen)
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