UBS (Switzerland) to name 5,000 holders of secret accounts

[SavageOrangeJug]

I guess mason jars buried in the backyard will soon be the only safe place to keep money.

GENEVA (Reuters) – The deal initialed last week between the United States and Switzerland over UBS will involve the disclosure of around 5,000 holders of secret Swiss accounts, weekly newspaper NZZ am Sonntag said on Sunday.

Another Swiss weekly, Sonntag, said around 4,500 names would be handed over.

The landmark deal, ending a dispute in which the U.S. tax authorities had sued UBS to disclose 52,000 U.S. clients suspected of tax evasion, dispels a big cloud hanging over the world's second biggest wealth manager.

It also formally leaves Switzerland's cherished banking secrecy intact, although many Swiss private bankers say it has been badly damaged.

HIDDEN LIMITS

NZZ am Sonntag said the names of those to be disclosed would be those suspected of committing tax fraud under the terms of the double taxation agreement, which obliges Switzerland to provide help if Washington seeks it in a criminal investigation.

Accounts below a certain size would not be reported, but this limit would be kept confidential so that account-holders could never be sure whether they were vulnerable, it said.

However, account-holders threatened with disclosure would be able to challenge the move in the Swiss courts, it said.

NZZ am Sonntag said the U.S. government had backed off from the original demands of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) because the U.S. Treasury Secretary did not want to provoke another financial crisis by pushing UBS over the edge.

Under a previous agreement, UBS settled criminal charges that it had facilitated tax fraud by paying $780 million and handing over data on about 250 U.S. clients.

More here: UBS to name 5,000 accounts under U.S. deal

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

Cayman Islands will probably be next... no safe place to bury money, unless you got into Canada and buy up gold Maple Leafs...

 

[Lexvol]

The Swiss are only going to give the info they want to give, and from what I'm hearing it is no big deal. They ultimately hold the trump card in the situation. The US is not really willing to risk the diplomatic advantages involved with keeping good relations with the Swiss banks.