Reuters: Financial Services and Real Estate: Swiss party seeks to delay withholding tax deals

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Swiss party seeks to delay withholding tax deals Apr 28th 2012, 11:22 ZURICH, April 28 | Sat Apr 28, 2012 7:22am EDT ZURICH, April 28 (Reuters) - Agreements by Switzerland with Germany, Britain and Austria to tax undeclared assets held in offshore bank accounts from next year could face a delay after a Swiss political party lau nched eff orts to stall a parliamentary vote on the pacts. Switzerland's Social Democrat party (SP) said it does not want Swiss lawmakers to vote on the tax deals until late this year, which would effectively prevent them from coming into force in 2013 as planned. The pacts are the cornerstone of Swiss efforts to maintain the country's long-held banking secrecy by taxing accounts held in Switzerland by foreigners and levying a punitive charge on money not declared to their national authorities. In a statement, the SP said it will only back the pacts if they do not present an obstacle to the eventual automatic exchange of information, as practiced in most European Union member states. Under the agreements, proceeds from taxes and the charge on undeclared cash would be passed on to national authorities but they would not find out the identities of the account holders. The SP is waiting for details from the Swiss government on plans to clean up Switzerland's reputation as a haven for untaxed money, which finance minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf has pledged to deliver in September. The finalisation of German, British and Austrian tax deals, which could draw billions of extra euros into their national coffers from January on, is dependent on Swiss lawmakers voting them through during the summer session. It was unclear whether the SP would be able to marshall broader political support to delay the vote until the Autumn. A spokesman for the Swiss government was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting By Katharina Bart; Editing by Catherine Evans) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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