Tax accord approved with US and Finland

The cabinet has given the green light for signing revised double taxation agreements (DTAs) with the United States and Finland.

However, the DTAs can only come into force once they have been ratified by parliament and approved by the partner state. The Swiss parliament also has the right to call a referendum on the accords.

In order for Switzerland to be removed from the “grey list” of tax havens established in April by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), parliament must ratify 12 of these accords.

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

Switzerland has already signed DTAs with Denmark, Luxembourg, France, Norway, Austria and Britain and has initialled several others.

swissinfo.ch and agencies