Switzerland & Italy Settle Dispute Over Taxes

Andrew Chamberlain

Switzerland & Italy’s Agreement

❖ Switzerland’s Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf and

Pier Carlo Padoan, Italian Finance Minister, have recently

agreed to correct the two countries’ longtime arguments over

undeclared funds located in Swiss bank accounts

❖ Italians with Swiss bank accounts should now be able to

regularize any untaxed assets through a voluntary disclosure

program

❖ The program may allow account holders to benefit from a

smaller penalty according to the recent agreement

Tax Authorities & The Ministry

❖ Tax authorities will also be able to seek out pertinent

information from their counterparts to aid in the discovery of tax

cheaters

❖ The Ministry of Finance has been quoted in saying “The

agreement will improve relations between Switzerland and Italy

in the area of finance and taxation after years of controversy

and simplify the regularization of untaxed assets”

❖ This new agreement will hopefully lead to new and exciting

ventures on both sides and serve as an example for other

countries that face similar challenges

Tax Authorities & The Ministry Pt. II

❖ Many people associate Switzerland with lenient, secret,

and untaxed financial assets, and Switzerland has been

working extra hard as of late in terms of trying to bury

any myths and set straight the record in regards to their

practices

❖ Switzerland has agreed on withholding tax deals with

Britain and Austria

❖ These will allow the governments to regain past-due tax

revenue while also maintaining their secrecy

Current Happenings

❖ The Swiss government is also trying extremely hard to

implement the automatic exchange of bank client

information

❖ This would essentially dissolve the bank secrecy for

offshore accounts

❖ Parliament is at the moment still expected to vote on the

matter later on this year

Current Happenings Pt. II

❖ Although no official numbers have been declared there

are reports of roughly 185 billion francs hidden in Swiss

accounts on behalf of Italians

❖ This number was found in a 2009 report from a

brokerage firm based in Geneva, known as Helvea SA

❖ The total amount of undeclared funds hidden by Italians

ranges to about 230 billion euros according to an

estimate put out by Bank of Italy