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Switzerland proposes deal for banks to resolve tax-evasion dispute with U.S.

By Catherine Bosley, Elena Logutenkova and Giles Broom, Updated: Wednesday, May 29, 8:07 AM
WashingtonPost

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- Switzerland proposed a bill that it says will provide the legal basis for the country’s banks, including Credit Suisse Group AG and Julius Baer Group Ltd., to resolve a tax-evasion dispute with the U.S.

The bill authorizes Swiss banks to cooperate with U.S. authorities and transfer information while safeguarding their interests, the government in Bern said in a statement today. The Swiss Parliament will consider the bill as soon as next week and it could come into force on July 1.


“The urgency is due to the fact that the United States is unprepared to wait any longer with the arrangement for the past for Swiss banks,” the government said. “If a solution is not found soon, Switzerland risks further escalation.”

Switzerland, the biggest haven for offshore wealth, has been in talks with the U.S. for more than two years to resolve a Justice Department investigation of at least 14 financial firms that allegedly helped Americans hide money from the Internal Revenue Service. The Swiss government wants to prevent another bank being indicted after Wegelin & Co. pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal court in January to conspiring to help conceal more than $1.2 billion from the IRS.

The bill will enable banks to pass on information on business relationships concerning U.S. persons and details on employees who worked with Americans, the government said. It doesn’t allow for the transfer of client data, which can only be passed on through administrative assistance procedures under a tax agreement with the U.S., it said.

Fines Undecided

Julius Baer, Switzerland’s third-largest wealth manager, informed some American clients this month that their accounts meet the criteria of a U.S. request for data, the Zurich-based bank wrote in a letter obtained by Bloomberg News.

Raymond Baer, honorary chairman of Julius Baer, said in a presentation in Geneva that government’s proposal needs to be analyzed before making any comment.

The agreement may lead to total fines of as much as 10 billion Swiss francs ($10.3 billion), Tages-Anzeiger reported earlier today.

“The Swiss won’t pay anything,” Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told reporters today in Bern. “We haven’t got an agreement about the level of a payment.”

The program isn’t up for discussion, said Widmer-Schlumpf, adding that Swiss banks will decide whether the proposal is useful for them.

Seems Painful

“I am convinced that what at first glance seems to be painful for all is better than no solution,” Credit Suisse Chairman Urs Rohner said in an interview with Neue Zuercher Zeitung published yesterday. “To believe that one can just postpone this problem and that it will solve itself isn’t realistic.”

The Department of Justice is requesting delivery of generic data about closing of accounts and money transfers to help resolve matters, the bill said. Data on bank employees will only be passed on after the persons are informed about the scope and type of data that is being sent, the bill said.

The banks will set up a fund of 2.5 million francs to support affected employees in particularly harsh cases, the association of banking employees said in a separate statement.

Switzerland is trying to shed its image as a tax haven after attracting $2.1 trillion to cross-border accounts during an era of undeclared money that started to crumble after UBS AG avoided prosecution in 2009 by paying $780 million, admitting it fostered tax evasion and giving the IRS data on more than 250 accounts. The turnover by UBS of a further 4,450 names, in the face of Swiss laws barring most disclosures of client data, set a precedent for the current settlement.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/switzerland-proposes-deal-for-banks-to-resolve-us-dispute/2013/05/29/2f2191e6-c853-11e2-9cd9-3b9a22a4000a_story.html?hpid=z3

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