TAX NEWS - June 2010

Swiss Tax: Data for 500 UBS Clients Said to Already Be in U.S.

Swiss authorities have already handed over 500 accounts of UBS clients to the United States under an agreement to end a tax dispute that has threatened the bank's existence, Reuters said, referring to a Swiss newspaper report published on Sunday.

The Swiss lower house rejected the agreement on Tuesday, triggering a new parliamentary debate next week and delaying a final decision on whether to allow the government to hand over a total of 4,450 UBS client accounts to American authorities.

UBS, the world's second-largest wealth manager, has already handed the accounts to Swiss tax authorities but the domestic political deadlock threatens to stop Switzerland handing them on to the United States by the August deadline, Reuters said. Missing this deadline could lead to American authorities  restarting legal action against the bank.

Around 2,900 files had already been prepared for handover and 1,550 more accounts were still being processed, the Swiss newspaper Sonntag reported. "Client dossiers were transferred to the United States in around 500 of the 2,900 cases," the publication cited the Swiss tax office spokesman Thomas Brueckner as saying.