Germany and Switzerland agree double tax deal
From News Mar 29 2010 BY: Helen Burggraf
, Deputy Editor
, International Adviser
Switzerland has signalled its willingness to become more co-operative on tax matters as it agreed in principle to a new double taxation deal with Germany.
Key details of the accord, which was reached on Friday in Berlin between Switzerland’s finance minister Hans-Rudolf Merz and Germany’s counterpart, Wolfgang Schäuble, remain to be worked out before it can be signed, according to a statement by the Swiss finance ministry.
These “unresolved financial and tax issues” will be addressed by a working group that is to be assembled for the purpose, the statement said.
Among them, it noted, are the possibility of arranging for the taxation of German residents’ assets that are invested in Swiss financial institutions, and ensuring the taxation, by means of a final withholding tax, of the ongoing investment income from assets that are invested in Swiss financial institutions by German residents.
The working group will also address “the handling of the purchase of bank data”, a reference to the controversial willingness Germany has shown to making use of information obtained from client data stolen from a Liechtenstein bank in 2008.
“Germany has acknowledged that Switzerland will not provide administrative assistance on the basis of purchased bank data,” the Swiss finance ministry statement noted.
Germany has been one of the G20 countries most aggressively seeking to crack down on tax evaders over the past two years, along with the US, UK, Italy and France. An estimated €200bn in undeclared German assets is believed to be held in Swiss institutions.
In the talks, Schäuble reportedly ruled out the possibility of a tax amnesty programme for German tax evaders, similar to the ones recently set up by the UK and Italy.