Can You Keep A Secret?
Neither can Switzerland, anymore.
Attributable to embarrassing international disputes over tax cheats and growing pressure from other sovereign nations facing declining tax receipts in the financial downturn - Switzerland, Luxembourg and Austria now plan to “comply with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s rules for combating tax offenses to avoid landing on the group’s black list of tax havens.”
They’re not opening floodgates with perfunctory disclosures. Rather, they’re renegotiating bilateral agreements with other countries and economic blocs, establishing criteria for information exchange in suspicious cases. No word from OECD yet on whether it’s enough of an olive branch to avoid a damaging black-listing, though a brief from yesterday, without naming the Swiss, expresses cautious optimism about states undertaking similar loosening:
While many jurisdictions still maintain arrangements that prevent them from assisting foreign authorities in tax investigations, recent actions and statements consistent with the OECD standards in this area on the part of some show that real progress is being achieved.
I don’t know to what extent Swiss bank accounts are denominated in Swiss francs vs dollars, euros or other but between this secrecy piercing and the intentional devaluation of the franc, I’m surprised it hasn’t gotten crushed. Switzerland is still rated number one in the world for creditworthiness, despite the problems at Swiss banks.
