Swiss data will go to US
A Swiss court for the first time cleared the way for the transfer to Washington of bank data about a UBS client, following the Swiss parliament’s approval of a key tax deal.
The Swiss federal administrative court said yesterday it had rejected objections by a UBS client to data transfer, saying the parliamentary vote had removed any remaining legal obstacles.
A spokesman for the court said: “The Swiss federal administrative court has decided that administrative assistance [to the United States] can be given with regards to this specific case. Swiss tax officials can now transfer the data to US authorities.”
Swiss parliament last month voted in favour of a treaty allowing the handing over of bank details of 4,450 UBS clients suspected of tax evasion to the US authorities.
Berne agreed in August 2009 to hand over the UBS client data to Washington to end a damaging tax investigation against Switzerland’s biggest bank.
A ruling in January by the Swiss administrative court blocked the data transfer, forcing the government to draft a legal fix.
The Swiss administrative court is reviewing around 100 more cases linked to the UBS US tax evasion case.