Savings Tax Directive Delay 'Not Switzerland’s Fault', Say Bankers
by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels
28 June 2004

The Swiss Bankers Association hit back last week at suggestions that Switzerland is to blame for the European Union Savings Tax Directive’s six month postponement.

According to the Associated Press, James Nason, a spokesman for the SBA remarked: “As usual the EU is trying to dump the blame for its problems on Switzerland."

The EU was forced to postpone the original January 1 2005 implementation date after finally conceding that there was little chance that the Swiss ratification process for the 'Bilaterals II' treaty would be completed in time.

However, Nason hit back at accusations of Swiss 'foot dragging', pointing out that the banking industry has been provided with insufficient details of the tax directive, preventing them from making the necessary preparations.

"We need a definition of 'interest,' we need a definition of 'EU taxpayer’. The EU hasn't delivered these definitions," he was quoted as explaining by the AP.

This was rejected by EU spokesman Jonathon Todd, who claimed that the information has been available for some time.

Nason added that the decision to delay was also a consequence of the EU’s failure to take into account the democratic process of nation states.

"The European Commission is used to exercising power through directives. That is not the Swiss idea of democracy, and the Swiss are insisting that the EU respects their long-established democratic procedures," he commented.

The Swiss government announced last week that none of the nine bilateral treaties recently agreed with the EU will be put to a mandatory referendum.

Nevertheless, anti-EU groups in the country are confident of gathering the 50,000 signatures needed to trigger a plebiscite on the issue.

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