UBS: Request for International Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters
July 05 2016 - 1:00AM
Business Wire
Regulatory News:
UBS (NYSE:UBS) (SWX:UBSN) has received a disclosure order from
the Swiss Federal Tax Administration ("FTA") to transfer
information based on a French request for international
administrative assistance in tax matters. The request concerns a
number of UBS account numbers pertaining to current and former
French domiciled clients and is based on data from 2006 and 2008.
Since then, the client base underlying the data has changed
significantly and a large number of the accounts affected by the
French request are closed.
The French tax authorities filed the request for international
administrative assistance in tax matters with the FTA based on the
Double Taxation Agreement between Switzerland and France. The FTA
has accepted the request and directed a disclosure order to
UBS.
Pursuant to the disclosure order, UBS is required to produce the
requested information to the FTA. The bank has expressed its
concerns to the FTA that the legal grounds for this request are
ambiguous at best. This includes the view that the data and the
justification received as part of the request lack the required
specificity. UBS has taken steps to inform affected clients about
the administrative assistance proceeding and their procedural
rights, including the right to appeal. To ensure legal clarity UBS
also plans to take legal steps to have the admissibility of the
administrative assistance request evaluated by the Swiss Federal
Administrative Court.
The request from the French tax authorities is based on data
received from the German authorities. As previously reported,
German authorities conducted various investigations on tax matters
in recent years. Certain data related to UBS clients booked in
Switzerland was seized during these investigations and also
apparently shared with other European countries. UBS expects other
countries to file similar requests.
The information seized also includes data from 2009 mainly
related to Swiss-domiciled private clients. UBS has taken steps to
inform these clients. They represent a very limited population of
the overall client base of the bank in Switzerland. A large part of
the data refers to mortgage and pension accounts. The
Swiss-domiciled private clients are not part of the French
request.
UBS has largely completed a compliance program with clients
based in Europe, including France. The bank was among the first in
the industry to take this step requiring documentation of tax
disclosure by its clients.
The request should also be seen in light of the fact that as per
1 January 2017, the automatic exchange of tax-relevant client data
between states (AEI) will take effect in Switzerland, under which
all Swiss banks will have to provide data to French and other tax
authorities on an annual basis.
UBS Group AG and UBS Switzerland AG
www.ubs.com
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