France24 – AFP,
1 Sep 2014
Switzerland
said Monday that it had completed a programme to pay Britain and Austria
hundreds of millions of euros in settlements for past tax-dodging by their
citizens.
In a
statement, the Swiss tax administration said that London had received a total
of 469.5 million pounds (593 million euros, $779 million), and Vienna, 738.3
million euros over the course of the year-long programme.
With the
financial crisis having put Switzerland under mounting pressure to lift its
trademark banking secrecy laws, the country opted to give ground in some areas
in order to defend the overall principle of privacy.
Under
bilateral deals with Britain and Austria, Switzerland offered two options to
people who failed to declare in their home countries money placed in Swiss
banks.
They could
either turn themselves in to their homeland's revenue services, or have their
accounts taxed by the Swiss, who then transferred the funds without naming the
clients.
It was
under the latter system that Switzerland handed over the sums in tranches
between July 2013 and August 2014.
The
completion of the payments means that the British and Austrian clients' funds
are now considered clean by their homelands' tax authorities and Switzerland.
The total
amount of funds regularised in this way in Switzerland now stands at 10.4
billion pounds and 5.9 billion euros.
In addition
to the deal on securing back taxes, Switzerland has agreed to collect regular
taxes from British, Austrian and other European Union account holders, then
transfer the money to the individual's homeland anonymously.
Switzerland,
which is not a member of the European Union, had also negotiated a deal with
Germany to clear past tax-dodging, but it was shot down by German lawmakers.
France,
meanwhile, has refused to make a similar deal with Switzerland, preferring to
oblige French tax-dodgers with cash in Switzerland to use its own national
system.
The deals
with Britain and Austria could become redundant from 2017, when Switzerland has
pledged to apply rules on the automatic exchange of tax information.
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