Banking Secrecy Is Here to Stay: Buy Swiss Banks

Tue, 02/16/2010 - 06:17 EDT - Seeking Alpha

Soner Kistak submits: Historically, speaking; under the Swiss principle of bank secrecy, privacy is statutorily enforced, with Swiss law strictly limiting any information shared with third parties, including tax authorities, foreign governments or even Swiss authorities, except when requested by a Swiss judge's subpoena However banking is not strictly anonymous since under its banking law all Swiss bank accounts.. This law only permits a bank to share information with others in cases of severe criminal acts, such as identifying a terrorist's bank account or tax fraud, but not simple non-reporting of taxable income (called tax evasion in Switzerland).Any bank employee violating a client's privacy could be punished quite severely by law. Bilateral treaties negotiated in 2009 between Switzerland and a number of countries may weaken secrecy related to tax evasion; as did a special agreement negotiated in 2009 between the USA and Switzerland concerning clients of the bank UBS SA. This description taken from Wikipedia roughly summarizes the concept of banking secrecy and the current discussions around its current standing.Complete Story »

Original article
Login or register to post comments

The Great Global Tax Grab is Already Underway
The world will soon be facing a tsunami of defaults on bad debts. This will include municipal or local government defaults such as the one now occurring in Stockton California, governments “defaulting” on promises they’ve made to the people (Social Security, Medicaid), a default on the social contract between society and politicians such as the one in Cyprus (a default on the notions of private property and Democracy), stealth defaults on debts in the form of inflation and finally, of course, outright sovereign defaults.
Canadian banks face new rules as Cayman Islands accord makes it tougher for wealthy to hide money
The Cayman Islands, known as a haven for wealthy Americans seeking to stash cash overseas without scrutiny from the U.S. government, is about to become less secret. An agreement between the countries will put in place the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or Fatca. The 2010 law makes it tougher to hide money overseas because foreign banks must report their accounts to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service or face, in some cases, a 30% withholding tax.
The Swiss Government And The Justice Department Are Hammering Out A Way To Go After Tax Evaders
ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss government agreed on Wednesday to create a legal basis that will allow its banks to settle investigations by U.S. authorities into their role in helping wealthy Americans evade billions of dollars in tax.
Switzerland Next: Swiss Banks Set To Foward Confidential Bank Client Data To U.S. Officials
Complete the following SAT logic question: Cyprus : Russian depositors :: Switzerland : [X] If you answered X = US depositors (for now... soon many more), you are correct.
Swiss Banks Expose Secret Accounts - And Themselves
Markos Kaminis (Wall St. Greek) submits: Your favorite secret Swiss banker is turning you in, and if you have ignored the IRS' kind offer to disclose your account information ahead of time, you might find yourself in prison soon.
US Banks on Swiss: RIP
Follow ZeroHedge in Real-Time on FinancialJuice
Where To Go as Swiss are Shutting Out U.S. Taxpayers
For some years now, Swiss Banks have not been willing to take on U.S. clients because of the aggressive tactics of the U.S. IRS. Since they hauled UBS over the coals for harboring U.S. tax evaders and continue to investigate many Swiss Banks, the IRS has posed a threat to Swiss companies operating in the United States. No matter where they live in the world, fear of being involved with a U.S. tax evader has put the wind up Swiss companies, and understandably so.
Government Sues UBS for Client Names
When UBS struck a $780 million deal with U.S. prosecutors this week, it agreed to hand over the names of up to 300 wealthy Americans who may have cheated on their taxes by secretly stashing money in that country. But the case is far from closed.
IT'S HAPPENING: Banks Are Ditching Switzerland For Finally Cracking Down On Secrecy
Switzerland — long famous for storing money and not asking any questions — has been beefing up scrutiny on banks enjoying shelter in the Alpine paradise's lax regulatory structure, Businessweek reports. And foreign private banks in Switzerland are now heading for the exits.
Swiss seek progress on U.S. tax deal: economy minister

Main menu

Secondary menu

Banking Secrecy Is Here to Stay: Buy Swiss Banks

Related

Latest

User login

Our Blog

Markets Map

Follow Us

Secondary menu