Brussels, 21/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 21 May, the Swiss Federal Council defined draft negotiating mandates for introducing the new rules on the automatic exchange of bank information (AEI) laid down by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Once endorsed, probably in September, the negotiating mandates will be used in talks between Switzerland and the European Union, the United States and other countries with close economic and political ties with Switzerland, states a Swiss government press release.
The Federal Council lists its demands: - “There is to be only one global standard”; - “The exchanged information should be used solely for the agreed purpose”; - “The information should be reciprocal, i.e. it should flow in both directions”; - “Data protection must be ensured”; - “The beneficial owners of trusts and other financial constructs should also be identified'”; - “Where appropriate, the issues of regularisation of the past and market access are to be incorporated into negotiations on the automatic exchange of information”.
The Federal Council says the negotiating mandate for talks with the EU will give new guidelines for the current negotiations over extension of the savings tax agreement. This does not mean much for the EU because it has always said that it wants AEI, said Taxation Commissioner Algirdas Semeta, adding that he hoped the talks with Switzerland would be completed this year. In March, Austria and Luxembourg lifted their veto over the changes to the EU savings tax directive extending the use of AEI, after receiving assurances that fair rules would be introduced by a number of non-EU tax havens, including Switzerland (see EUROPE 11044).
Switzerland will now begin the process of getting final approval of the guidelines from its federal assemblies and cantons, which it is hoped will be completed by September.
In May, 47 pays (the OECD member nations along with Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Switzerland and South Africa) signed a statement pledging to apply automatic exchange of tax information (see EUROPE 11074). The new OECD rules are due to be adopted in July and enshrined by the G20 Summit in Australia in November. (MB)