UBS is facing yet another demand for information on its clients.
Keystone / Gaetan Bally
Italy has asked Switzerland to supply information on all Italian account holders at UBS bank in the years 2015 and 2016 to help it in the hunt for tax evaders.
The request was submitted to the Swiss tax administration at the end of last year but has only just been made public. On Tuesday the Swiss authorities published the request in the Federal GazetteExternal link to give affected people the chance to appeal against their data being handed over.
Such group requests from foreign tax officials are controversial in Switzerland, but the Swiss Federal Court only last month set a legal precedent by ruling that UBS must comply with a similar demand from France.
The ruling has been viewed as boosting the chances of the Italian request being successful. In a statement to the Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA, UBS said it complies with tax obligations of European countries and international standards.
But the Italian request, submitted on December 6, 2018, covers the period February 2015 to the end of 2016, which falls before Switzerland agreed a treaty with the European Union on the automatic exchange of tax data.
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Italy demands data on billions in suspect Swiss accounts
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In a statementExternal link issued on Thursday, the Guardia di Finanza said it wanted details on around 10,000 accounts. The Swiss tax administration said it would not comment on ongoing cases. It was not revealed if all the suspect accounts related to Credit Suisse. But the Guardia di Finanza linked its request to an earlier…
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The Swedish and Dutch requests, submitted in October 2016 and February 2017 respectively, were reported in the latest edition of the Swiss Federal GazetteExternal link, which acts as a general public notice of such actions. It sends a further message that the net is closing on wealthy tax cheats who hid their money…
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