Federal Council amends ordinance on double taxation agreement with United States

Berne, 16.11.2011 - At its meeting today, the Federal Council approved an amendment to the ordinance on the double taxation agreement (DTA) between Switzerland and the United States that dates back to 1996. The amendment should ensure that the procedural rights of affected persons domiciled in the United States remain guaranteed even if administrative assistance requests are submitted based on certain patterns of behaviour.

Anyone affected by an administrative assistance request submitted to Switzerland by a foreign state is entitled to participate in the procedure. If an affected person is domiciled abroad, he or she would be notified of the administrative assistance request by the holder of the information, e.g. a bank. If the holder of the information cannot reach the person, he or she is notified by the relevant US authorities. However, this procedure is not applicable for administrative assistance requests based on certain patterns of behaviour; otherwise the affected persons would be disclosed to the US side before being able to assert their rights in Switzerland. The Federal Council thus amended the ordinance at its meeting today in order to ensure such persons are also informed correctly about administrative assistance requests.

The amendment to the ordinance governs the procedure for nameless requests in cases where the bank is unable to identify the affected persons at the request of the Federal Tax Administration (FTA) and inform them about the US administrative assistance request. The corresponding information is provided via a publication in the Federal Gazette, which also makes reference to the obligation to designate a representative ad litem. The FTA will be tasked with drawing attention in US media to the publication in the Federal Gazette

Address for enquiries

Roland Meier
Media Spokesperson FDF
+41 31 322 60 86
roland.meier@gs-efd.admin.ch