Switzerland moved a step closer to ending its centuries-old laws which have protected the secrecy of the country's banks on Thursday after a key parliamentary vote.
The upper house of the Swiss parliament ratified an agreement made by the Swiss government to hand over the names of thousands of UBS clients to the US.
The vote is seen as a major step forward in the US taxman's attempts to get his hands on the names of 4,450 of UBS's American clients as part of a wider investigation into tax avoidance.
However, in a separate vote, the lower house of the Swiss parliament – the Federal Assembly - will next week have to approve the Swiss-US deal, signed in August 2009 as part of a deal to drop tax evasion charges against the Swiss bank.
As part of that deal, the names of approximately 250 of the wealthiest people on UBS's US offshore client list have already been handed over. August 19, 2010 is the deadline for the remaining names under the agreement signed with the Internal Revenue Service and the US Department of Justice.
Prior to the deal, the US was accusing UBS of assisting wealthy Americans in hiding almost $20bn (£13.7bn) of assets in offshore accounts. As part of the settlement, UBS paid a fine of $780m in order to avoid criminal charges.
No comments:
Post a Comment