Posted on 10/06/2018 7:29:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
ZURICH (Reuters) - The era of mystery-cloaked numbered Swiss bank accounts has officially come to a close as Switzerland, the world’s biggest center for managing offshore wealth, began automatically sharing client data with tax authorities in dozens of other countries.
The Federal Tax Administration (FTA) said on Friday it had for the first time exchanged financial account data at the end of September under global standards that aim to crack down on tax cheats.
Bank secrecy still exists in some areas — Swiss authorities cannot automatically see what citizens have in their domestic bank accounts, for example — but gone are the days when well-paid European professionals could stash wealth across the border and beyond the prying eyes of their tax man.
The initial exchange was supposed to be with European Union countries plus nine other jurisdictions: Australia, Canada, Guernsey, Iceland, Isle of Man, Japan, Jersey, Norway and South Korea.
“Cyprus and Romania are currently excluded as they do not yet meet the international requirements on confidentiality and data security,” the FTA said.
Transmission of data to Australia and France was delayed “as these states could not yet deliver data to the FTA due to technical reasons”, it said, adding that it also had not yet received data from Croatia, Estonia and Poland.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
If I say “Rats!”
Will the IRS audit me?
“The initial exchange was supposed to be with European Union countries plus nine other jurisdictions: Australia, Canada, Guernsey, Iceland, Isle of Man, Japan, New Jersey, Norway and South Korea.”
Also in Switzerland:
Switzerland Votes to Send People to Prison for Homophobia and Transphobia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3694026/posts
The council voted 118 for and 60 against to introduce a prison sentence for homophobia and transphobia. However, the motion still needs to be passed by the Council of States before it can become law. [snip]
~~~
More news in Digging Deep:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2636478/posts?page=2899
I’m glad the Swiss are messing up.
Cayman Islands, my FRiends.
Does this mean they’ll disclose Nazi gold holdings to the German government?
THIS is why there is a demand for cryptocurrencies like BitCoin.
You can walk into dozens of countries around the globe...pay some lawyers and gov’t guys $20,000 and they will hustle up some new passport from their country, with ‘Yuris Bosky’ on it, and that’s the end of your Swiss bank secret account issues.
Obama set this in motion.
There was an American Jewish guy who also had a Swiss passport. He got accused of securities fraud by the US gummint but struck a deal:
“Let me off and give me non-extradition back to Switzerland and I’ll give you a verrrry long list of wealthy Americans with secret accounts in Switzerland.”
Swiss laws against this finkery were incredibly strict, that’s why he had reason to fear over what he was about to do. Banking secrecy was actually written into the Swiss Constitution, I heard.
The US gummint got their list, ultimately recovering much money for stupid social programs and far-off wars on behalf of other countries.
You know what happened to the fink?
Well, if you play a demonstrable role in the recovery of US tax monies, US law says you get at a little cut:
That fink got something over a BILLION dollars, in addition to not getting busted.
THAT is what first kicked this off. It started over 10 years ago.
Nazi Gold and Stolen Artwork were moved before this happened ?
Not a problem for me. I keep my tens of hundreds of dollars in my mattress. As long as I’m not flagged & inspected for tearing off my gubment mattress tags, I think I’m pretty safe.
Maybe we can get the info on the Marc Rich bribe.
Maybe the Swiss have Iraq’s WMDs?
I’m glad the Swiss are messing up.
Cayman Islands, my FRiends.
THIS is why there is a demand for cryptocurrencies like BitCoin.
...
That was my first thought. Wealthy people have found other ways to hide their money.
The payments are demanded from extortionists using, mainly, the stolen passwords from LinkedIn from over 10 years ago. But the bitcoin addresses are being reused in the extortion emails. Therefore people sending the money are merely sending money to a scam, there's no way the senders can be traced because it's all being sent to one address (although the address does change from time to time).
Would not surprise me if the extortionists are simply making up the address as they change the text of the extortion email to avoid spam filters. Then the money is being sent to addresses with no private key. The money (like the majority of Bitcoin) can never be redeemed and spent on anything. That also drives the price up.
Or all the foreign wealth deposited into Swiss accounts during the 1930s and early 1940s, that no one ever claimed?
There is no freedom without economic privacy.
Its a freedom issue, and its also a personal security issue. And its necessary when you become the target of generalized oppression, and most especially if that oppression is directed at you personally. People all over the third world know this, and Americans will learn this too late.
And now everyone in the world is a little less free. America needs to get rid of the inherently abusive income tax that shreds the 4th Amendment. The IRS routinely violates citizens’ 4th Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure without a warrant issued by a court upon probable cause and supported by oath and affirmation. IRS levies and seizures are unenforceable because the IRS is UNABLE AND UNWILLING to swear under oath that a law has been broken or that there is probable cause of a violation.
I predict an immediate run on Cypriotic and Rumanian embassies, as millionaires around the world rush to acquire Cypriotic and Rumanian passports merely in order to slap them down on Swiss bank counters when opening secret numbered accounts.
Regards,
Money will find a way. As someone wiser then me has said: “If Switzerland didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it.” Some other country will take up the banking secrecy that the Swiss once provided. Yeah, the US the Brits, The Euros will put the pressure on whoever is next, but someone will take up the mantle. The beauty of the Swiss banking laws was that you knew your money wouldn’t be appropriated by the the government or the banks themselves.
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