German clients of three leading Swiss banks have been warned that they must either produce evidence of having paid their taxes or come clean with the tax authorities if they want to keep their accounts.
Credit Suisse and the private Julius Baer bank confirmed to the Swiss News Agency reports in Saturday’s Tages-Anzeiger and Der Bund newspapers that they had written to their German clients asking them to provide documents to prove that they had declared their holdings.
«We are advising our German clients to look at their situation and to regularise it if necessary,» said CS spokesman Marc Dosch. Otherwise the bank will stop doing business with them.
This applies not only to recently opened accounts, but also to ones that have been held for decades.
UBS for its part was quoted in the newspapers as saying it had sent an «unmistakable demand» to its clients.
Julius Baer spokesman Jan Vonder Mühll reminded the news agency that it had already announced such a policy back in February after the German parliament had refused to ratify a tax deal reached between the two governments.
The Tages-Anzeiger explained that in Germany clients who come clean face no punishment, although they can expect to have to pay the tax authorities between one quarter and one third of the money they have attempted to hide.
It said that in France, on the other hand, anyone who tries to cheat the tax authorities faces high fines and a prison sentence.