Switzerland, under pressure to join a global crackdown on tax fraud, asked the US on Saturday to drop a legal case involving UBS bank in return for a new tax accord the two countries are about to negotiate.
UBS agreed recently to pay a US$780 million fine and disclose the identity of about 300 of its US clients to avert criminal charges, but US authorities are still pursuing it, seeking to access the data of another 52,000 Americans they say are hiding about US$14.8 billion in assets in Swiss bank accounts.
Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz, whose country is famous for strict bank secrecy, told a news conference that US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner seemed sympathetic to his call, put to Geithner at a meeting in Washington.
Bern and Washington start talks tomorrow on a new bilateral tax treaty and Merz said he hoped the negotiations would move swiftly.
Any such accord would need to be adopted by lawmakers in both countries, though, and perhaps put to referendum in Switzerland, where it could stumble if the US tax evasion case was still hanging over UBS, Merz said.
“I think Mr Geithner is conscious of the fact that these criminal procedures that are taking place in the United States could be an obstacle to the political process of the double taxation accords,” Merz said. “This is why I proposed that the criminal proceedings be withdrawn at the time of signing of such an accord.”
The US authorities arrested and charged an accountant in Florida on April 2 in the first of what they said could be a series of tax evasion prosecutions of American clients of UBS.
Merz said that this move, which came just as Switzerland had said it was ready to negotiate a new tax accord with Washington, had been “harmful to Switzerland and UBS.”
Merz said that on the sidelines of the IMF’s semi-annual meetings, Geithner promised to consider the Swiss request but could not reply immediately.
The US Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Under international pressure, Switzerland announced earlier this month that it would move toward internationally accepted standards of bank information disclosure in tax fraud cases.
Merz, who is also his country’s finance minister, said that renegotiation of tax accords with the US, Japan and Poland were already earmarked as priorities. Similar moves could also start with European countries.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique