TRAF implementation: ordinances enter into force on 1 January 2020 Bern, 13.11.2019 – During its meeting on 13 November 2019, the Federal Council approved three ordinances to the Federal Act on Tax Reform and AHV Financing (TRAF). These amendments concerning the tax component will enter into force on 1 January 2020. The Ordinance on the Reduced Taxation of...Read More

        Federal Council adopts dispatches on amendment of double taxation agreements with New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden Bern, 06.11.2019 – During its meeting on 6 November 2019, the Federal Council adopted the protocols of amendment to the double taxation agreements (DTA) with New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The protocols implement the minimum...Read More

    Federal Council brings FinSA and FinIA into force Bern, 06.11.2019 – During its meeting on 6 November 2019, the Federal Council brought the Financial Services Act (FinSA) and the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA) – together with the implementing ordinances – into force as at 1 January 2020. Transitional periods of two years are provided for in...Read More

            Federal Council adopts dispatch on amendments to double taxation agreement with Iran Bern, 23.10.2019 – During its meeting on 23 October 2019, the Federal Council adopted the dispatch on the protocol of amendment to the agreement with Iran for the avoidance of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and capital...Read More

        EU removes Switzerland from tax haven lists Switzerland has acknowledged the fact that European Union will remove the country from its grey list for tax havens following a reform of the corporate tax system. “Switzerland meets and implements international tax standards. The European Union has acknowledged this…” said a statement,external link released by the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF),...Read More

      Switzerland suspends AEOI with Bulgaria During its meeting on 20 September 2019, the Federal Council decided to immediately suspend the automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI) with Bulgaria due to a problem with the country’s data security. The systems and databases of Swiss tax administrations and financial institutions are not affected...Read More

      Protocol of amendment to double taxation agreement (DTA) between Switzerland and United States of America enters into force Bern, 20.09.2019 – On 20 September 2019 in Bern, Switzerland and the United States of America exchanged the instruments of ratification of the protocol of amendment to their double taxation agreement in the area of taxes on...Read More

The Swiss Data Protection Commissioner has issued a legal complaint against the Finance Ministry for sending the names of bank employees, lawyers, accountants and other third parties to the United States to assist with tax evasion investigations. The Swiss Supreme Court has already issued a ruling that bans the indiscriminate disclosure of people’s names without...Read More

Third party actors, such a bank employees, lawyers and accountants, should not be named when Switzerland hands over tax data to other countries, the Swiss federal administrative court has ruled. The verdict upholds a complaint from the Swiss data commissioner’s office against a finance ministry decision to include the names of such professionals. People who...Read More

N26′ Grand Plan for Switzerland, Neobank, the German online bank, has launched its presence in Switzerland. Here is, what the company expects to achieve in the heart of European banking. Georg Hauer, general manager at smartphone-bank N26 and responsible for the German, Austrian and Swiss regions, wants to get Swiss customers fall in love with...Read More