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 “This is why I proposed that the criminal proceedings be withdrawn at the time of signing of such an accord.”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.
CELEBRATION: The PRC turned 75 on Oct. 1, but the Republic of China is older. The PRC could never be the homeland of the people of the ROC, Lai said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) could not be the “motherland” of the people of the Republic of China (ROC), President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks in a speech at a Double Ten National Day gala in Taipei, which is part of National Day celebrations that are to culminate in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on Thursday night next week. Lai wished the country a happy birthday and called on attendees to enjoy the performances and activities while keeping in mind that the ROC is a sovereign and independent nation. He appealed for everyone to always love their
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
MAKING PROGRESS: Officials and industry leaders who participated in a defense forum last month agreed that Taiwan has the capabilities to work with the US, the report said Taiwan’s high-tech defense industry is to enhance collaboration with the US to produce weapons needed for self-defense, the Ministry of National Defense said in a report to the Legislative Yuan. Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Yen-pu (徐衍璞) discussed building regional and global industry alliances with US partners at the US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference in Philadelphia held from Sept. 22 to Tuesday last week, the ministry said in the declassified portion of the report. The visit contributed to maintaining bilateral ties, facilitated Taiwan’s efforts to acquire weapons and equipment, and strengthened the resilience of the two nation’s defense industries, it said. Taiwan-US ties
CONCERNS: Allowing the government, political parties or the military to own up to 10 percent of a large media firm is a risk Taiwan cannot afford to take, a lawyer said A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator has proposed amendments to allow the government, political parties and the military to indirectly invest in broadcast media, prompting concerns of potential political interference. Under Article 1 of the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法), the government and political parties — as well as foundations established with their endowments, and those commissioned by them — cannot directly or indirectly invest in satellite broadcasting businesses. A similar regulation is in the Cable Radio and Television Act (有線廣播電視法). “The purpose of banning the government, political parties and the military from investing in the media is to prevent them from interfering
RSS