Swiss Unlikely To Put Savings Tax Directive To Referendum

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

18 November 2004

Reports this week suggested that the passage towards implementation of the European Union's Savings Tax Directive in Switzerland will be smoother than feared, after the Swiss government indicated that a referendum on the agreement is unlikely.

In comments made after a regular meeting of finance ministers from countries in the European Free Trade Area, Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm revealed:

“The Swiss minister made us happy by informing us that everything was well underway with the savings (tax) agreement.”

The EU had initially intended the directive, which seeks to facilitate the sharing of bank interest information between national tax authorities, to go into effect on January 1, 2005.

However, the adoption date was pushed back to July 2005 to allow sufficient time for the Swiss parliament to ratify the ‘Bilaterals II’ treaties, which include adoption of the Savings Tax Directive.

The possibility that the Swiss government might have been obliged to put the treaties to a referendum also cast further doubt over the implementation of the directive.

However, Swiss Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz, who was also present at the EFTA meeting, assured ministers that this would not be the case.

“He did not expect a referendum in Switzerland on this issue, so that was a very comfortable communication from his part," Zalm revealed.

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