Swiss irked as corrupt French threaten blacklist over tax

Switzerland bristled on Monday at an assessment by French president Nicolas Sarkozy that it should be put on a planned G20 blacklist of tax havens.

This situation "would go completely against our relationship with the European Union," Leonard Bender, a leading member of the centre-right Radical Party, which supports banking secrecy.

Adding Switzerland to a blacklist of tax havens would be an "excessive and unjustified decision", Bender said.

Asked after an EU summit in Brussels whether the Swiss could find themselves on the blacklist being prepared for a G20 meeting next month, Sarkozy replied: "That depends on their response. But as things stand ... the answer is probably, yes."

Swiss Bankers Association's spokesman said he found the "hypocrisy of the coordinated attack on Switzerland quite nauseating".

Noting that of more than 30 jurisdictions being targeted over their favourable tax regimes, "the only name on the list Mr Sarkozy seems able to pronounce is Switzerland", he said.

A spokesman from Switzerland's finance ministry declined comment on Sarkozy's remark.

On Saturday, Swiss finance minister Hans-Rudolf Merz said his country might have to make some concessions on banking secrecy to avoid being placed on an international blacklist when the leaders of the G20 industrialised and emerging economies meet in London on April 2.

In recent months, Switzerland has faced growing international pressure especially in the United States and in the European Union, where critics claimed secrecy encourages their citizens to evade taxes by hiding their money in Swiss banks.

The US justice department filed a lawsuit in the US last month to force Switzerland's biggest bank to reveal the identities of 52,000 US customers who allegedly evaded taxes, stepping up the pressure on the Swiss bank.

UBS had earlier agreed to a $US780-million ($A1.23 billion) settlement on charges of aiding tax fraud in the United States.

Banking secrecy law prohibits Swiss banks from revealing information to domestic or foreign authorities or any third parties about their clients, except in cases involving recognised criminal investigations.

In Switzerland, only tax fraud is regarded as a crime, not tax evasion, a distinction that does not exist in most other major economies.
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Swiss irked as corrupt French threaten blacklist over tax

Swiss irked as corrupt French threaten blacklist over tax

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