A Swiss court said on Friday that it had upheld an appeal by a US taxpayer in a ruling that could jeopardize a landmark deal between Switzerland and the US settling tax fraud charges against Swiss bank UBS.
In a state-brokered settlement in the US last year, Switzerland’s banking flagship UBS warded off a bruising US government lawsuit by agreeing to hand over secret details about 4,450 clients and US taxpayers.
However, the Swiss Federal Administrative Tribunal effectively halted that handover by ruling in favor of one of the clients who had lodged an appeal in a test case.
“The Federal Administrative Tribunal has upheld the appeal by a US taxpayer against the decision by the federal tax authority to transmit their banking data to US tax authorities [the Internal Revenue Service] under a procedure for mutual assistance relative to UBS,” the tribunal said in a statement.
It described the decision as a “pilot ruling” and denied leave for appeal to Switzerland’s supreme court.
The tribunal ruled that last year’s agreement between the US and Swiss governments could not take precedence over the rules set out in the existing Swiss-US dual taxation agreement.
The out-of-court settlement last August ended months of diplomatically sensitive negotiations over a massive US probe of taxpayers with secret accounts at the world’s largest wealth manager, allowing UBS to avoid a costly lawsuit.
Swiss legislation requires UBS to pass the client details to the Swiss government, which in turn would decide if they should be transmitted to the US.
The Swiss government said in a statement that it would decide after a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday how to ensure that last year’s settlement could be applied following the court ruling.
It said the settlement had been aimed at solving the dispute within the bounds of the law, thereby “allowing the threat of a conflict” between Swiss and US legal regimes “to be lifted.”
The US taxpayer was accused of omitting to file a W-9 declaration form with the IRS, taking advantage of Swiss banking secrecy.
However that omission could not be considered to be fraudulent and the offence therefore did not warrant the handover of their Swiss banking details to the US, the Federal Administrative Tribunal said.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
RSS