What's going on? I thought the "world government" was totally toothless and ineffective? I thought the rich lived by their own rules?
Well there is still time for both to be true but I was surprised to read that this Swiss tax issue continues to escalate. Suddenly the G20 is considering blacklisting Switzerland as a tax haven... and the Swiss are "reconsidering" their privacy laws, in particular the line between tax evasion and tax fraud.
Hmmm.
Swiss to Review Banking Secrecy Laws
MARCH 7, 2009
Wall Street Journal
Switzerland's government on Friday gave a panel two weeks to advise on whether the country should loosen its banking laws to allow the release of information on tax evaders to foreign governments.
On Sunday, French president Nicolas Sarkozy said the G-20 could put Switzerland on a planned blacklist of tax-haven nations.
Swiss officials say their government has not been invited to the summit, which will broadly discuss how to reform the international financial system, despite its role as an international financial center and regulator of some of the world's biggest banks. The G-20 represents a selection of industrialized and developing countries from all continents, plus the European Union. Switzerland is not a member.
Mr. Merz said his country had three choices: to keep its bank secrecy laws as they are; to abolish them; or to adapt them as the situation requires. The cabinet chose the third option, he said.
The panel is likely to look at whether Switzerland's banks should change their rules on client confidentiality. Swiss law defines tax evasion as a civil, rather than a criminal offense. That protects depositors from scrutiny, because the country's banking rules say that bank data can be provided to foreign governments only in criminal cases.
It's this distinction between tax evasion and tax fraud that the expert commission set up Friday is tasked to review. Any decisions prompted by the panel, whose deliverations will be confidential, would be taken made by the Swiss cabinet.
