OECD explains to Swiss its position on tax
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has once more defended its position on fiscal matters, after accusations of unfairness.
In a letter to Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz, disclosed on Thursday, the OECD’s Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, said some recent public statements in Switzerland on the tax issue were “inaccurate”.
Gurría wrote on April 2 saying there were no “black lists” of non-cooperative countries and the OECD did not include or “threaten to include” Switzerland on any black list.
Switzerland has been placed on the “grey list” of countries, which are being closely monitored to see if they make changes to their tax legislation.
Gurría wrote: “As you know very well, Switzerland does not yet have a single agreement on the exchange of information that conforms to the OECD standard.”
In a related development, the OECD issued a statement on Thursday saying it regretted that Switzerland had blocked €136,000 (SFr206,000) destined for collaboration between the OECD and the G20 group of countries.
In a reaction to the letter, a spokesman for the Swiss finance ministry said Merz had “taken note” of the OECD’s letter.
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