New Delhi: In a move that has implications for India's fight against
black money, the Swiss Government has asked its banks to prevent
acceptance of "untaxed assets" in their accounts without violating
client confidentiality.
"Banks' existing due diligence
requirements are to be extended in order to prevent the acceptance of
untaxed assets of foreign clients, including Indians, more effectively.
"The
focus is on enhanced due diligence requirements for banks when
accepting assets as well as a requirement for foreign clients to make a
declaration on the fulfilment of their tax obligations," the Swiss
Federal Council, the country's top policy-making authority has said.
However,
it opposed the idea of 'automatic information exchange' with any other
country, asserting the 'bank client confidentiality' should be respected
as far as possible.
Swiss banks are known to have the
strongest secrecy clauses globally, which have helped them attract the
rich and mighty clients from across the world, but has also given them a
'tax haven' tag.
In a multi-pronged strategy aimed at
removing this tag, the council has also proposed that all those past
cases should be immediately settled, where assets of foreign clients of
Swiss banks have not been correctly taxed.
The steps come on
the back of growing international pressure on Swiss authorities to act
against any possible hoarding of illicit and untaxed money in
Switzerland-based banks by people from different countries, including
India.
Earlier this month, the CBI Chief had said at a
function that Indians are the largest depositors in Swiss banks. Within
days, the Swiss Embassy said in a statement that such estimates and
statistics lacked evidence and were uncorroborated.
The CBI
Director A P Singh had also said that "it is estimated that around 500
billion dollars of illegal money belonging to Indians is deposited in
tax havens abroad".
While there have been various estimates
of Indian black money stashed abroad, the statement by the CBI Director
was significant as it was for the first time someone in authority in the
country had come out with an estimate.
The Swiss Federal Council has asked its Department of Finance to prepare concrete measures by September, 2012.
The
proposed steps include a greater international cooperation and taxation
of investment income and capital gains for Swiss bank clients in the
future.
"The Federal Council's aim is to create favourable
framework conditions for the Swiss financial centre that boost its
competitiveness and at the same time are accepted worldwide. Abuses of
bank client confidentiality should be prevented insofar as possible," it
said in a statement.
It has also proposed international
withholding tax agreements for taxing the clients as per the regulations
of their home country, while safeguarding their privacy.
"Despite
the fact that some issues have not yet been fully resolved, there is
international interest in this approach and it will be pursued by
Federal Council beyond the agreements already negotiated with Germany
and the UK," it said.
The Swiss authority has also proposed
an improved administrative and mutual assistance in accordance with the
international standards.
While proposing steps to comply
with the various double taxation agreements, the Council also said that
serious tax crimes should be taken into account in the fight against
money laundering in the future.
It has also sought extension of due diligence requirements of financial service providers as a complementary component.
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