Third party actors, such a bank employees, lawyers and accountants, should not be named when Switzerland hands over tax data to other countries, the Swiss federal administrative court has ruled.
The verdict upholds a complaint from the Swiss data commissioner’s office against a finance ministry decision to include the names of such professionals. People who are not directly linked to a request for administrative assistance should have their privacy respected, said the court on Tuesday.
The debate over naming lawyers and the like, who may have helped bank clients cheat on their taxes, has been raging for several years. The finance ministry insists that this practice is essential to keeping to the spirit, as well as the letter, of laws involving the transfer of tax data to other countries.
Officials also say it would be too time consuming and costly to comb through mountains of documents to redact names.
However, judges disagree, saying that this would infringe the human rights of individuals and their right to privacy under Swiss data protection law.
Therefore, names of people with a connection to bank clients being investigated for tax offences should be redacted or such persons should be warned in advance. This applies particularly to people whose names appear accidentally in documents, the court said.
This content was published on
A majority of Swiss citizens have open attitudes towards various infertility treatments, including even egg donation, which is currently prohibited.
Reports of Swiss cyber fraud almost doubled in six months
This content was published on
The head of the new Federal Office for Cybersecurity (FOC), Florian Schütz, has presented a new strategy after just over four months in office.
Ecological status of Swiss streams insufficient according to study
This content was published on
Pesticide use and obstructions of waterways have a particularly negative impact on sensitive organisms, completely absent in 70% of streams analysed.
Train line between Brig and Domodossola interrupted
This content was published on
One day after a derailment approximately 15 kilometres from the Swiss border, BLS is running buses for passengers between Preglia and Domodossola, in Italy.
Swiss football boss wants crackdown on individual hooligans
This content was published on
The head of the Swiss Football League says he prefers a harsher approach to individual hooligans rather than collective punishment measures affecting all fans.
Amherd: Council of Europe is ‘as urgently needed as ever’
This content was published on
The Swiss government emphasised on Sunday the vital role of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, 75 years after it was founded.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Swiss-US tax data transfer method ‘violates law’
This content was published on
The Swiss Supreme Court has already issued a ruling that bans the indiscriminate disclosure of people’s names without forewarning the individuals involved. This applies even when Switzerland has a treaty to automatically exchange tax information with other countries, as it does with 30 nations including the US. These treaties were signed following a US criminal…
Court says disclosure of bank employee’s data ‘illegal’
This content was published on
A Swiss court has ruled that the transfer of a former Credit Suisse bank employee’s data to the United States as part of American tax evasion investigations was illegal.
This content was published on
Max*, who used to work at a prominent Swiss bank, tells swissinfo.ch about the mental strain of living with the fear of being arrested, extradited and dragged into a US criminal investigation. Having worked on the North America desk of his bank’s wealth management unit, Max’s name was handed over to the US authorities without his…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.