Swiss Federal Council amends ordinance on double taxation agreement with United States
The amendment should ensure that the procedural rights of affected persons domiciled in the United States remain guaranteed even if administrative assistance requests are submitted based on certain patterns of behaviour
Anyone affected by an administrative assistance request submitted to Switzerland by a foreign state is entitled to participate in the procedure.
If an affected person is domiciled abroad, he or she would be notified of the administrative assistance request by the holder of the information, e.g. a bank.
If the holder of the information cannot reach the person, he or she is notified by the relevant US authorities.
However, this procedure is not applicable for administrative assistance requests based on certain patterns of behaviour; otherwise the affected persons would be disclosed to the US side before being able to assert their rights in Switzerland.
The Federal Council thus amended the ordinance in order to ensure such persons are also informed correctly about administrative assistance requests.
source: admin.ch
