Swiss ruling halts UBS
(27 January 2010 – Europe) The waging war between Swiss bank UBS and United States tax authorities, which appeared to be settled after a court ruling last year, has now taken another avenue after a Swiss court ruled in favour of an appealing US client of UBS’s.
The client appealed against the bank handing over his data to the US tax authorities.
The landmark judgement has the power to jeopardise the settlement between the two parties; a further 25 similar cases are still pending before the court.
The tribunal hearing the case said that the Federal Administrative Tribunal had upheld the appeal by a US taxpayer against the decision by the federal tax authority to transmit their banking data to US tax authorities (IRS) under a procedure for mutual assistance relative to UBS.
Last year a dispute erupted between Swiss authorities and the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS); the US accused UBS of hiding nearly US$15 billion (A$16 billion) of assets for their United States customers to avoid being taxed.
As a result of the settlement, UBS was ordered to handover the names of 4,450 customers.
Before the names were to be handed over to the US authorities, the Swiss tax administration was enlightened to the material first for a thorough review.
The IRS said that they still believe UBS will honour their agreement to hand over the information.
The landmark judgement has the power to jeopardise the settlement between the two parties; a further 25 similar cases are still pending before the court.
The tribunal hearing the case said that the Federal Administrative Tribunal had upheld the appeal by a US taxpayer against the decision by the federal tax authority to transmit their banking data to US tax authorities (IRS) under a procedure for mutual assistance relative to UBS.
Last year a dispute erupted between Swiss authorities and the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS); the US accused UBS of hiding nearly US$15 billion (A$16 billion) of assets for their United States customers to avoid being taxed.
As a result of the settlement, UBS was ordered to handover the names of 4,450 customers.
Before the names were to be handed over to the US authorities, the Swiss tax administration was enlightened to the material first for a thorough review.
The IRS said that they still believe UBS will honour their agreement to hand over the information.
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