August 4th, 2009
There is much speculation about the nature of the deal the US has come to with Switzerland over the UBS case and the US demand for 52,000 names concerning accounts they think might have resulted in US tax abuse.
No one knows what the agreement is, but there’s
lots of noise. In that there’s considerable spin going on.
I can say one thing for sure: the US won’t get what it asked for and Switzerland will claim it’s banking secrecy will survive.
The latter claim seems unlikely to be true. First, it’s thought that maybe 5,000 names will be given....
August 3rd, 2009
The New York Times is carrying an article by a Swiss ideologue, Pierre Bessard, entitled
Leave Swiss Banks Alone. Anyone reading it might be forgiven for thinking that Swiss bank secrecy somehow is a benefit to the world. We would like to correct a few points of fact, and of interpretation.
First, he trots out the hoary old canard that bank secrecy started out, at least in part, as a way to protect money from the Nazis. We recently published the correction of this myth in the Financial Times, in our March 26 letter entitled
Swiss secrecy laws...August 3rd, 2009
ZURICH (Reuters) - Shares in UBS soared on Monday after reports said the Swiss bank would not pay a fine and would pass on fewer client names than expected in a settlement of U.S. tax litigation to be finalized later this week.
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August 1st, 2009
The U.S. and Swiss governments have tentatively settled a legal dispute in which the U.S. government was demanding the names of thousands of Americans suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to hide money from the Internal Revenue Service.
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