US tax authorities ask Switzerland for customer data from 9 institutions Ruth Humbel: “Party colleagues told me to stop with health policy”

The US tax agency IRS continues to pursue tax evaders as far as Switzerland. She now wants to get more information from the Swiss authorities about account details at a total of 9 Swiss financial institutions. The Tax and Customs Administration has already made many requests for information in recent years.

The requests for administrative assistance relate to bank accounts of US customers who had not previously authorized the Swiss institutions to pass on their account information to US authorities, the Federal Tax Agency (ESTV) said in a statement published on Tuesday. The Swiss banks had therefore only reported the data of these customers to the IRS in aggregated form.

The St. Galler Kantonalbank, One Swiss Bank, Banque Cramer & Cie and Società Bancaria Ticinese are affected by the new requests for information.

Advice within 20 days

For the class requests, the US authority is relying on an agreement on the implementation of the FATCA (“Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act”) agreement between Switzerland and the US, as evidenced by the FTA notices published on Tuesday.

The affected US persons can now submit their comments about the intended transfer of data about them to the IRS within 20 days. The FTA will make a final decision for each account relationship affected by the group request.

In addition to the new requests, the free trade agreement has also published 35 such final rulings. They are issued to all those persons who, despite having been informed, have not agreed to the simplified procedure for international administrative assistance in tax matters, nor informed the FTA of a Swiss address or a person authorized to act in Switzerland to serve.

Final decisions were issued for customer relationships of banks such as Credit Suisse, Banque Bonhôte, Banque Pictet & Cie or Luzerner Kantonalbank. (aeg/sda/awp)