por admin » Vie Nov 16, 2012 11:38 am
Suiza vota para no ser un refugio de evasion de impuestos
Switzerland Vows Not to Be Tax Haven
By NEIL MACLUCAS
ZURICH—Switzerland is determined to shed its reputation as a harbor for untaxed assets, the country's top negotiator on new tax treaties with European and U.S. authorities said Friday, just ahead of the possible implementation of new tax agreements with the U.S. and Germany.
"Our view is that everyone has to pay taxes, it's one of the few certainties in life, and that privacy can't be used to further tax evasion," Michael Ambuehl, head of the Swiss Secretariat for International Financial Matters, said at a banking conference in Zurich.
The Alpine country has signed tax agreements with several countries, and is negotiating with others. Switzerland came under pressure to stop allowing foreigners to use its bank-secrecy laws to evade taxes after UBS AG, UBSN.VX -2.52%the nation's biggest lender by assets, in 2009 admitted wrongdoing in helping Americans hide money from tax authorities.
UBS agreed to disclose the names of more than 4,500 U.S. account holders and paid a $780 million fine. Thousands of Americans, not all of whom had accounts with UBS, have since voluntarily disclosed their accounts under two U.S. tax amnesties.
"We respect the right of countries to gather tax from their citizens, as well as the right of individual privacy," Mr. Ambuehl said.
Switzerland has reached deals with the U.K., and Austria to retroactively tax assets hidden in Swiss bank accounts, and ensure taxes on such assets will be paid in the future.
The Swiss negotiated a similar treaty with Germany, but whether it will come into force next year is still in doubt. The deal is threatened by a veto in the upper house of Germany's parliament, dominated by opposition parties who consider the terms of the treaty too lenient on tax evaders. The vote will take place Nov. 23.
Gaining their backing has become even harder after it emerged last week that German prosecutors are investigating employees of UBS' German unit on suspicion that they helped bank clients evade German taxes for nearly a decade.
Switzerland has also started formal negotiations with the Italian and Greek governments and is holding exploratory talks with several other unnamed countries.
Switzerland would prefer agreements on withholding taxes rather than the automatic exchange of bank data, according to Mr. Ambuehl.
"We don't want to ban the exchange of certain bank information, but we want an alternative, like the withholding tax model," Mr. Ambuehl said.
Switzerland also aims to sign an agreement with Washington soon to implement tax-reporting requirements under a new U.S. law aimed at preventing offshore tax evasion.
Under this new law foreign banks are required to identify Americans among their clients and to provide their financial data to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
Swiss banks haven't greeted the new law with enthusiasm because its implementation requires massive investment in information technology and staff to ensure compliance. But seeing that there is no way around it, they have urged Bern to sign it sooner rather than later.
The U.K. in September became the first country to agree to the law known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.
Write to Neil MacLucas at neil.maclucas