SWISS VOTERS WILL NOT BE VOTING ON BANKING SECRECY

Politics – The right-wing committee backing the “Yes to the Protection of Privacy” initiative withdrew its proposal on Tuesday. “In Switzerland, we operate on the principle that taxpayers are honest,” according to Ueli Maurer

Well done for safeguarding our privacy!!

We are deeply committed to this privacy, and there is no question of seeing our country descend into the same situation as those European countries where the state controls all of its citizens’ personal data.

The loss of this privacy would have been catastrophic...

NOVUSVIA

The Swiss will not be voting on the preservation of banking secrecy for domestic taxpayers. With the final shelving of the revision of criminal tax law during the last session of the Federal Assembly, the main objective of the initiative’s organisers has been achieved.

A referendum is therefore unnecessary, they stated in a press release. The parties concerned will nevertheless remain vigilant and continue to fight against any attack on the current banking secrecy in Switzerland.

Relationship of trust

The initiative committee points out that it was political and legislative developments aimed at abolishing banking secrecy – which is intended to protect citizens from the state in financial matters – that led to the launch of the initiative in 2013. The initiative aimed to maintain the relationship of trust between citizens and the state.

The cantons should not be able to require banks to provide information about a client in cases of tax evasion, and not just tax fraud. Under current law, for example, the cantons cannot question bank employees or access banking data. The committee believes that the automatic exchange of information within the country would have destroyed the privacy of citizens in Switzerland.

Government U-turn

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf had proposed that offences should in future be judged according to their severity and on the basis of the same criteria. Even in the case of undeclared income, banks would have been obliged to inform the cantonal tax authorities if criminal proceedings were initiated. Safeguards were certainly in place, and confidentiality would have been maintained for tax assessment purposes. But this was not enough to allay concerns.

Not only did the right-wing launch this initiative in 2014, but the Federal Assembly, through its committees, tabled motions that forced the Federal Council to backtrack. The Federal Council has now definitively abandoned Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf’s proposal.

Not over

But the matter is not closed just yet. A revision of criminal tax law still appears necessary. Twenty-one cantons had in fact supported the Federal Council’s proposal. Speaking before Parliament, the finance minister stated that the issue of distinguishing between tax evasion and tax fraud would certainly resurface.

Ueli Maurer acknowledged that the abandoned proposal went too far. In Switzerland, the principle is that the taxpayer is honest, he noted. (ats/nxp)

Source: TDG