Swiss bank accounts cut
(22 July 2008 – USA) Under pressure from US regulators to stamp out tax evasion, UBS has decided to stop offering Swiss bank accounts to US customers.
The US Government and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have recently put pressure on banks suspected of helping clients to evade tax through undeclared offshore accounts.
This has resulted in UBS ending the practice of providing offshore services as well as releasing the names of suspected tax frauds.
Mark Branson, chief financial officer of UBS's global wealth-management unit, said that UBS will no longer provide offshore banking or securities services to US residents through their bank branches.
UBS has been pressured to give details of 19,000 US clients with US$17.9 billion (A$18.4 billion) in undeclared Swiss bank accounts.
Two weeks ago a US court authorised the IRS to demand names of US accountholders from UBS as part of an attack on tax evasion, estimated to cost America US$100 billion a year in unpaid tax.
A report was released in the US found that only 1000 of UBS's 20,000 American clients with Swiss bank accounts had declared their accounts to the IRS.
UBS will not hand over identities of all 19,000 of these customers because, The Times reports, it does not follow that every undeclared account has broken US tax law. Instead it will identify only those it believes may have engaged in tax fraud, although that number is expected to run into thousands.
This has resulted in UBS ending the practice of providing offshore services as well as releasing the names of suspected tax frauds.
Mark Branson, chief financial officer of UBS's global wealth-management unit, said that UBS will no longer provide offshore banking or securities services to US residents through their bank branches.
UBS has been pressured to give details of 19,000 US clients with US$17.9 billion (A$18.4 billion) in undeclared Swiss bank accounts.
Two weeks ago a US court authorised the IRS to demand names of US accountholders from UBS as part of an attack on tax evasion, estimated to cost America US$100 billion a year in unpaid tax.
A report was released in the US found that only 1000 of UBS's 20,000 American clients with Swiss bank accounts had declared their accounts to the IRS.
UBS will not hand over identities of all 19,000 of these customers because, The Times reports, it does not follow that every undeclared account has broken US tax law. Instead it will identify only those it believes may have engaged in tax fraud, although that number is expected to run into thousands.
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