John Doe summons against UBS withdrawn

UBS hopes a line has now been drawn under its US woes Keystone

The United States tax authorities have “fully and definitively” withdrawn the John Doe summons served on Swiss bank UBS, according to the federal finance ministry.

In a statement on Tuesday, the ministry said the withdrawal followed the substantial delivery of administrative assistance cases by Switzerland.

By the end of August, the Federal Tax Administration had examined about 4,450 UBS client accounts under the agreement with the US. The delivery of data by Switzerland was largely completed by mid-November after expiry of the appeal periods.

Overall, around 4,000 cases have been supplied to the US to date. Subject to the outcome of pending appeals before the Swiss Administrative Court or in the case of no appeals, information on a number of additional accounts will be delivered to the IRS over the course of the coming months.

In the administrative assistance agreement of August 19, 2009, Switzerland and the United States had defined criteria for examining the administrative assistance request concerning tax offences. This request was submitted by the Internal Revenue Service to the Federal Tax Administration on August 31, 2009.