Tax deal with Germany outlined
Switzerland and Germany are close to making a deal on withholding tax on German assets held in secret Swiss bank accounts.
The details could be finalised by the end of the month according to Michael Ambühl, a top Swiss negotiator for international financial matters.
"There are no concrete figures yet but we have agreed with Germany on principles and formulas which have to be fleshed out in negotiations," Ambühl said in Thursday’s Tages-Anzeiger newspaper.
Ambühl said that Switzerland had managed to convince Germany of the merits of a withholding tax, but he gave no specifics.
A withholding tax would allow Switzerland to preserve some of its banking privacy by not automatically sharing account information with Germany.
Last year, Ambühl negotiated a deal to end the US tax investigation into UBS bank.
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