Brussels, 19/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 19 March, the European Union and Switzerland initialled an agreement aiming to introduce the OECD global standard on the automatic exchange of information on bank accounts. Data collection will be carried out from 2017, with an initial exchange in 2018. Switzerland has now re-tabled the question of improving access to the European market for Swiss financial service providers.
The agreement replaces the one on tax on savings in force since 2005 and, like it, provides for an exoneration from taxation at source of cross-border payments of dividends, interest and royalties between associated companies, according to a Swiss press release. For its part, the Commission stresses in a press release that EU residents will no longer be able to hide undeclared income in Swiss bank accounts in order to evade taxation. Every year, the states will receive the names, addresses, tax ID and dates of birth of their residents with accounts in Switzerland, together with a broad range of financial information about them. “It is no exaggeration to say that this is an historic agreement”, said the Commissioner for Taxation, Pierre Moscovici, appearing briefly before the press. The Director General of the Commission's Directorate General for Taxation, Heinz Zourek, praised the Swiss for their flexibility, as the substance of the negotiations has changed several times over the course of the discussions. Zourek initialled the agreement on behalf of the EU. It has still to be officially signed over the next few weeks. In Switzerland, it still requires the approval of the Federal Chambers and is subject to a referendum.
The Swiss announced that the day before, they had met Jonathan Faull, director-general of the Commission's Directorate General for the 'Internal Market and Services', and launched exploratory discussions on the feasibility, desirability and possibility to launch negotiations on improving access to the European market for Swiss financial service providers. “This is a matter of common interest”, said Jacques de Watteville, the Swiss secretary of state. When asked whether Switzerland had made this a precondition of signing the agreement on the exchange of information, de Watteville explained that this was a global standard which nearly a hundred states have signed up to. “We have taken this commitment and cannot do it in a conditional way”, he said, adding that he hoped to see the commitment implemented by other states as well. Zourek explained that the Swiss demonstration of commitment to play by international rules could help in that regard. He also recognised the mutual interest, particularly should the EU decide to embark on a Capital Markets Union. (Élodie Lamer)