Swiss bank accounts held in trust: the Swiss bank secrecy reborn?

Détails

ID Serval
serval:BIB_DEC2B56F578C
Type
Article: article d'un périodique ou d'un magazine.
Collection
Publications
Titre
Swiss bank accounts held in trust: the Swiss bank secrecy reborn?
Périodique
Trusts & Trustees
Auteur⸱e⸱s
Grisel G., Gani R.
ISSN
1363-1780
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
01/06/2012
Volume
18
Numéro
5
Pages
402-414
Langue
anglais
Résumé
On 13 March 2009, the Swiss federal government ‘unilaterally’ decided to change its policy regarding international exchange of information in tax matters. It gave up its traditional restrictive approach and began to renegotiate its double tax treaties in order to adopt the standard of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development model in this field. The direct consequence of this shift of paradigm is that the clients of the Swiss banks are no longer guaranteed quasi-absolute bank secrecy towards their residence country’s tax authorities. Indeed, information may now be provided to a foreign government (upon request and under certain conditions) in some cases even if covered by the Swiss bank secrecy. The aim of this article is to examine to what extent the traditional Swiss bank secrecy will still be guaranteed under the new Swiss international tax policy if the account is held by trustees, and to take a first glance at the possibility that trusts be substituted in practice for the old restrictive Swiss tax policy. Hence, we first examine the Swiss bank secrecy and its recent evolution, then consider the new Swiss policy regarding exchange of information and analyse its effects with respect to accounts held in trust, and finally conclude that in some circumstances and to a certain extent, trusts could work as a barrier against exchange of information between Switzerland and foreign tax authorities.
Création de la notice
30/01/2020 2:50
Dernière modification de la notice
30/01/2020 2:50
Données d'usage