Feb 2010:
The government's conciliatory tone toward Germany's plan to use stolen Swiss bank data to find tax cheats shows just how problematic Swiss banking has become, media in both countries say.
The government’s conciliatory tone toward Germany’s plan to use stolen Swiss bank data to find tax cheats shows just how problematic Swiss banking has become, media in both countries say.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said earlier this week that Germany would do what it could to fight tax evasion.
An unknown informant has offered to sell data on some 1,500 bank clients with money in Swiss accounts for €2.5 million (SFr 3.7 million). Investigators estimate the information could net €100 million in undeclared tax money.
From a law-abiding point of view it is “shocking” that the German government wants to buy the stolen goods, writes commentator Patrick Feuz in Bern’s Der Bund newspaper.
But “Switzerland is in no position to be outraged”, he continues. “For many the decades-long business of Swiss banking has been indignant”.
The rightwing Swiss People’s Party (Yodeling Fascists?) disagreed in a 20 Minuten report and put its disgust at the cabinet’s willingness to continue tax treaty talks with Germany more bluntly: “The government has no balls.”
Other newspapers pointed to the U-turn that the Swiss government, particularly Finance Minister Hans-Ruldolf Merz, has taken.
When French authorities said they planned to use stolen data in a similar manner, the Swiss government set out to suspend negotiations on double taxation accords. Now Merz has “abandoned his fighting words” with Germany, the Blick newspaper wrote. “This time it’s all friendly.”
“Merz recently said banking secrecy was not up for negotiation,” the paper continued. “Then yesterday he said, ‘We have no interest in foreign tax-evader money'. A 180-degree turn.”
Switzerland is paying the price for shortsightedness, wrote the Bund. Those on the centre right allowed financial centres to exhaust banking secrecy as a “competitive advantage” up until the last minute. Only the left has dared to say that such a model has a shelf life, it said.
Of course the Swiss government over the past year has eased offshore banking secrecy laws while under foreign pressure but, the paper argued, “Finance Minister Merz is naïve if he now believes that the framework of a new accord will solve the problem of existing black money accounts.”
The Geneva-based Le Temps said the only thing to do now is to say “loud and clear” that the time of stashing away grey money is over.
“It’s not about giving up without negotiating but about leaving the holdout where too many bankers and elite are still walled up,” the paper said.
Le Temps added that the Swiss have a “historical responsibility” to find a solution for taxpayers who used Swiss institutions to protect their capital from practices that would confiscate their money.
Many papers said it is high time that the Swiss purge once and for all the “accumulation of dangerous waste” that has built up in their vaults over the year.
The European Union is demanding an automatic exchange of banking information, which the Swiss are understandably worried about, Blick wrote.
“But if Switzerland doesn’t want to be steamrollered, the cabinet ministers and bankers must this time come up with an emergency plan B,” Der Bund answered.
Whatever that plan B may be, other countries are already lining up to get their hands on the data, too. Austria has expressed its interest.
Return to last page