Monday, September 7, 2009

Switzerland as Rat Fink (maybe)

Switzerland and Britain signed a new treaty giving the British tax authorities more access to banking information and taking the Swiss one step closer to being taken off an international list of tax havens, according to Reuters.

The deal contains a provision for exchange of information in accordance with Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development standards.

It comes shortly after Switzerland signed a tax deal with France, in which it agreed to share banking information upon request from France’s tax authorities as of Jan. 1, 2010.

The Swiss must sign 12 new tax treaties by the end of the year to be removed from an O.E.C.D. “grey list” of tax havens.

This is all U.S./Globalist pressure in an attempt to monitor every penny in the world. Despite this announcement, I am really not sure how this will impact Swiss banks that stick to their knitting and do not attempt to acquire assets outside Switzerland. My guess is that it will remain extremely difficult for anyone to penetrate those banks.

Switzerland has yet to reach an agreement with Germany, which faces a general election later this month and has been one of the most vocal critics of Swiss banking secrecy.

(Thanks to Nick)

1 comment:

  1. Good article from a Swiss bank about this:

    http://www.wegelin.ch/download/medien/presse/kom_265en.pdf

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