US-Swiss banks, tax agreement rumoured “soon”

Two Swiss government officials have now said an agreement between the US Department of Justice and 14 Swiss banks accused of helping US clients avoid taxes could be reached soon, according to Swiss news media.

The Tribune de Genève’s front page story today cites Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf as saying outside the Bretton-Woods group conference in Washington that the long-awaited agreement could “very quickly” be settled now.
American media have not covered the story at all, and this is not the first time that a deal was said to be close, then appeared to fade away again.

The same words were used by Jacques de Watteville, state secretary for international financial matters, again according to Swiss media.

Of greater interest to many Americans in Switzerland, or Swiss with US assets, might be the Tribune’s additional report that de Watteville says the Swiss government wants a new Fatca (Foreign Account Tax Compliance) agreement. The current one goes into effect 1 July 2014. It calls for Swiss banks to send directly to US authorities data on their US clients. The option selected by some other countries now interests Switzerland: the federal government would be responsible for sharing the data with the US, rather than banks, and the US would reciprocate.

Для консультаций по вопросам связанным с управлением активами в Швейцарии, открытием и функционированием банковских счетов в швейцарских банках, регистрацией швейцарских компаний, а также другим вопросам, которые связаны со Швейцарией, вы можете обращаться по электронной почте: vvolkov@alpha-capita.ch