Brussels wants to take action against possible tax fraud in Switzerland
Published: Wednesday, Nov 20th 2024, 14:10
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The European Commission wants to use new instruments to combat possible tax fraud by EU citizens in Switzerland. To this end, the Brussels authority wants to renegotiate the existing agreement on the automatic exchange of tax information with Bern. The responsible Swiss Council of States committee has expressed reservations.
The member states of the European Union (EU) unanimously demanded that the Commission hold talks with Switzerland on support for the collection of tax claims, as a Commission spokeswoman told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Wednesday. She thus confirmed information from the "NZZ am Sonntag".
According to the Commission, this support is important to combat tax fraud, avoidance and evasion. A large majority of countries around the world would provide some form of support for the collection of tax claims.
In May, the EU member states instructed the Commission to revise the agreement on the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) with Switzerland, according to EU Council documents. The aim of the renegotiations is to take account of changes at international level.
Parliamentary commission expresses reservations
Last week, the Committee for Economic Affairs and Taxation of the Council of States (WAK-S) was informed about the ongoing negotiations on the AEOI, as announced by the parliamentary committee. According to the communiqué, the Committee expressed significant reservations regarding a possible extension of the negotiating mandate and saw no reason to deviate from the already defined mandate for the update.
The agreement has been in force since 2017 and contributes to the fight against cross-border tax evasion, as the federal government wrote on its website. Specifically, Switzerland and the EU member states collect and exchange account data.
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