It seems that the bilateral tax treaty between Italy and Switzerland is near to be signed. We don’t know the details but this should be the general structure:
- A back duty. We don’t know if it will be on charge of italians with undeclared money in Switzerland or on all of them.
- A tax on annuities which Switzerland authorities will pay to Italy. It’s not clear if it relates only on anonymous italians or on all of them.
- Maintenance of the bank secrecy excepting particular cases such as terrorism, mafia and maybe tax evasion.
By these changes on policy Switzerland will be no more on the “black list”.
What I see are fat governments who desperately need to finance their expenses and in order to do it use their power of big nations to make pressure on little privacy- and freedom-friendly nations like Switzerland. Will the fat cats obtain the end of Swiss secrecy? I think it would be a bad news for all of us.
(ANSA) – Bern, November 19 – A Swiss diplomat familiar with negotiations said on Monday that Italy and Switzerland were close to reaching a cross-border deal that may help discourage Italian tax evaders holding money in Swiss bank accounts.
The agreement would mean funds in Swiss bank accounts would pay capital gains tax at a rate similar to that of the funds’ country of origin, but the clients who have those accounts would keep their anonymity. “We are confident in finding an agreement by the end of autumn, by December 21,” said Oscar Knapp, an international finance representative for the Swiss government.
The agreement with Italy is modeled on bilateral agreements reached between Switzerland and three other countries – Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom.