One step before the agreement for the Greeks’ “hidden treasure”
Greece is following Germany
and England, trying to come to an agreement with Switzerland in order
to check the accounts and tax returns of those who have taken their
money abroad. This was the target of a meeting between the general secretaries
of the finance ministries of both countries, I. Plaskovitis and M. Ambuhl
in Bern on Thursday, October 27. According to information from the Greek
Finance Ministry the Greek side is looking for two forms of agreement:
Whether the tax will be collected directly from the Greek authorities, or by the Swiss ones who will then pass it on to Greece, it will be about a specific amount of deposits or over it (eg 100.000 euros per depositor). This means that the soft scenarios for just a 10% tax on deposits (as if they were registered in Greece) are abandoned. Sources from the Ministry of Finance say that if these deposits are not reported in the E1 statement of 2011 in the special code, then they can be seized.
However, the agreements reached by Germany and England have the tax levied on all the registered capital and calculated by a formula that takes into account the movement for the period of the last 10 years, the opening of the account after the announcement of the agreement and other parameters.
The agreement will include conditions for future deposits, and the framework for information and data from the Swiss authorities, upon request of the Greek side. In any case, this procedure does not cover criminal offenses and does not invalidate agreements aimed at avoiding double taxation.
The talks are at an advanced stage and will take the form of a cornerstone agreement to be approved and made public by the end of the year. The Finance Ministry is now trying to make use of the critical 60-day period until the next troika review and the ratification of the October 26 decisions.
Relevant statements were also made by finmin Evangelos Venizelos, who spoke of an agreement "in the standards of those signed recently with the United Kingdom and Germany," so that Greece can recover "missing taxes of several years or to learn information that will enable it to identify blatant cases of tax evasion. It is important that any criminal liability is maintained as active, e.g. because of money laundering." This development in Switzerland, together with the lifting of bank secrecy and disclosure of names of those whose deposits were transferred abroad, and the amount of which is not justified by the tax return, will slowly allow the ministry to better focus its efforts to address the black economy and tax evasion.
- Either the opening of the accounts and the passing of information for deposits in Swiss banks to Athens
- or the implementation of a "horizontal tax" (eg 20% -30%) of all the registered (or invested) capital in Switzerland, which corresponds to the amount of tax that would have been paid if the deposit amount was reported as income in the Greek tax authorities.
Whether the tax will be collected directly from the Greek authorities, or by the Swiss ones who will then pass it on to Greece, it will be about a specific amount of deposits or over it (eg 100.000 euros per depositor). This means that the soft scenarios for just a 10% tax on deposits (as if they were registered in Greece) are abandoned. Sources from the Ministry of Finance say that if these deposits are not reported in the E1 statement of 2011 in the special code, then they can be seized.
However, the agreements reached by Germany and England have the tax levied on all the registered capital and calculated by a formula that takes into account the movement for the period of the last 10 years, the opening of the account after the announcement of the agreement and other parameters.
The agreement will include conditions for future deposits, and the framework for information and data from the Swiss authorities, upon request of the Greek side. In any case, this procedure does not cover criminal offenses and does not invalidate agreements aimed at avoiding double taxation.
The talks are at an advanced stage and will take the form of a cornerstone agreement to be approved and made public by the end of the year. The Finance Ministry is now trying to make use of the critical 60-day period until the next troika review and the ratification of the October 26 decisions.
Relevant statements were also made by finmin Evangelos Venizelos, who spoke of an agreement "in the standards of those signed recently with the United Kingdom and Germany," so that Greece can recover "missing taxes of several years or to learn information that will enable it to identify blatant cases of tax evasion. It is important that any criminal liability is maintained as active, e.g. because of money laundering." This development in Switzerland, together with the lifting of bank secrecy and disclosure of names of those whose deposits were transferred abroad, and the amount of which is not justified by the tax return, will slowly allow the ministry to better focus its efforts to address the black economy and tax evasion.
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