US urged to abandon UBS tax case
Talks between US and Swiss officials
US and Swiss officials are scheduled to meet in Bern tomorrow to discuss a
new tax treaty which is being used as leverage in the case against investment
bank, UBS.
Hans-Rudolfe Merz, Switzerland’s finance minister, and Tim Geithner, US
treasury secretary, met at the weekend with Merz arguing an aggressive
investigation into UBS accounts could make it difficult to secure approval for a
tax treaty, according to
ft.com
Commenting on the talks, US officials said: ‘The secretary listened to the
Swiss concerns regarding the UBS case and indicated that he understoodthe
importance of appropriately resolving the matter.’
In February, UBS agreed to a $780m settlement with the Internal Revenue
Service to drop a case that a number of its clients used loopholes in US
legislation to hide funds offshore.
The IRS is also seeking bank account information on approximately 52,000
Amercian UBS clients, a move being disputed by Switzerland.
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