The Swiss Federal Council has recently requested authorisation from the National
Council and the Council of States to amend certain double taxation agreements
(DTAs), already approved by parliament, to ensure that they are in line with
internationally applicable standards on administrative assistance in tax matters.
Commenting on the latest dispatch, the Swiss Federal Administration states
that: “With the amendments, Switzerland stands by the concept of a level
playing field for all countries. With the dispatch adopted today, the Federal
Council is implementing the amendments to the requirements for administrative
assistance requests decided on February 13, 2011.”
The administration notes that the DTAs with Denmark, Finland, France, the
UK, Qatar, Luxembourg, Mexico, Norway and Austria, approved by parliament on
June 18, 2010, are to be supplemented with an interpretation clause. This clause
states that the requirements for an administrative assistance request should
not hinder an effective exchange of information, the administration adds. It
therefore also reduces the risk of failure in the peer review process of the
Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, the administration states.
The administration explains that: “The Federal Department of Finance
(FDF) should be authorized by parliament to bilaterally agree the interpretation
clause in an appropriate form with these nine states. Switzerland and the respective
contracting state will thereby be bound by the requirements set out in the agreement
for an administrative assistance request not to be interpreted in a formalistic
and restrictive manner.”
It continues: “In accordance with the Federal Council decision of February
13, 2011, in future indicating the name and address of the taxpayer and the
information holder is no longer absolutely necessary for processing administrative
assistance requests, provided that the identification occurs by other means
and fishing expeditions are not involved.”
“Because this rendering of the interpretation clause was not available
at the time of approval by parliament on June 18, 2010, it must be approved
by the National Council and the Council of States in order to be constitutionally
secure and viewed as being approved by the legislator in possible appeals proceedings
in court.”
“For each of these agreements, the Federal Council will thus submit
a supplementary resolution to parliament on the interpretation clause and its
definition. There will be a further supplementary resolution on the agreement
with the United States, which was also approved by parliament on June 18, 2010.
This agreement already contains the interpretation clause, which is why parliament
only has to take a decision on its definition.”
The DTA amendments are to be implemented gradually, the administration concludes.
With regard to agreements which are pending before parliament, the Federal Council
has submitted a proposal for reconsideration. In the case of DTAs which have
already been signed and which have not yet been submitted to parliament for
approval and which do not contain an interpretation clause, the required amendments
should be carried out with the partner state on a bilateral basis. This also
applies to initialled DTAs.
LAWANDTAX-NEWS.COM
