Swiss Finance Minister Plans Tax Amnesty

Ulrika Lomas, Tax-news.com, Brussels

28 February 2001

The Swiss Finance Minister is said to be keen for Switzerland to have a general tax amnesty, and so the Federal Council could soon begin public consultations on the subject. Kaspar Villiger is seeking a way of "legalising" the substantial assets which he believes are lying in a number of Swiss accounts, and a tax amnesty seems like the perfect means of swelling the government's coffers. It is not known just how much money is waiting there for the Finance Ministry to tax, but it is thought to be considerable. This is Switzerland we are talking about, after all.

However, according to the Finance Ministry, the proposed amnesty has just as much to do with "justice" as with money. It believes that the discovery of the hidden assets will broaden the tax base and re-distribute the tax burden more fairly. It's a good 30 years since the last amnesty, so Mr Villiger feels it is time to give certain citizens a chance to salve their consciences. The Finance Ministry has noted that some Swiss may be hiding tax payments unwittingly, and have inadvertently found themselves in a sticky spot, for example as a result of inheritance.

The push for a general tax amnesty represents a complete u-turn for the Federal Council, which for years has dug its heels in at parliamentary calls for an amnesty. As recently as 1997, Villiger told parliament that an amnesty was not the thing to do, well, only in extraordinary circumstances. Exactly what "extraordinary circumstances" meant is anybody's guess.

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