Double tax accord signed with France

Switzerland and France have signed a revised double taxation agreement, making it easier for the two countries to exchange banks' customer information.

It is the third of 12 such agreements Switzerland needs to sign in order to be removed from the “grey list” of tax havens established in April by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The agreements all conform with Article 26 of the OECD’s Model Tax Convention, which creates an obligation for countries to share relevant data for tax enforcement.

French Economics Minister Christine Lagarde came to Bern on Thursday to sign the agreement with Swiss Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz.

The French economics ministry said the new accord would enable the authorities to obtain banking information “regardless of the type of tax, of the people and of the information targeted by the request”.

“In particular, the Swiss legislation on banking secrecy will no longer be an obstacle to passing on this information.”

The Swiss finance ministry told the Swiss news agency, SDA, that the agreement with France was “not very different” from those already reached with other countries. Information can only be released on a case-by-case basis and only when the authorities have shown justified grounds for the request.

Switzerland signed its first agreement with Denmark last week, and a second with Luxembourg on Tuesday. It has another ten agreements drawn up, including with the United States, Japan and Britain.

Double taxation agreements are kept confidential during negotiations and after they are initialled. They are made public only after they are signed.

swissinfo.ch and agencies