L’accord fiscal avec les Etats-Unis passe le cap du National
The taxation agreement on FATCA between Switzerland and the US that would prevent American taxpayers from avoiding the [IRS] was accepted Monday by the National Council [lower house of Parliament] by 112 to 51.
Accounts held in Switzerland by American taxpayers should no longer escape the IRS. By 112 votes to 51 and 21 abstentions, the National Council passed the FATCA agreement Monday. The bill returns to the Council of States [Senate] for a minor divergence regarding the [date?] of entry into force.
The American law called FATCA was to be in effect from next January. The agreement [IGA] and its [Swiss] enforcement law… was prepared in view of this [date]. In the meantime, Washington made it known that the new rules would be applicable only from July 2014.
Past not yet dealt with.
With this treaty, Switzerland should be able to put an end to the taxation conflict with the United States. But only for future taxation of American accounts.
In order to draw a line through the past, certain banks must await the verdict of the American court system, and others must resort to a program concocted by [Washington] which would essentially put them at risk for significant fines and [require] transmission of data to [the IRS].
My assumption here is that the Swiss enforcement law is being returned to the Senate in order to change the effective date to July 2014, but I am not certain. Please see text of the enforcement law and previous discussions here at IBS: Discussions on Swiss Senate Approval of FATCA and SIF page
Here are some direct links cited on aforesaid IBS post, dating back to the June approval of FATCA and Swiss enforcement law by the Senate:
Proposed Federal Law (French): Proposed Enforcement Law
Text of the IGA (English): IGA
Text of the IGA (French): IGA-French
Report (French): Report
What really upsets me is that we had heard in the news that the debate on FATCA would go to the lower house in November. Also, I am wondering if anyone in either house of the Swiss Parliament knows that a drive for repeal is under way. The RTS article does not mention bone fide residents of Switzerland or neighboring countries. Again, our plight is ignored by the press.
Please everyone, write to RTS and other Swiss news agencies to remind them of who this will affect.
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Here is another article from Le Matin that goes into more detail, sorry no time to translate this morning: http://www.lematin.ch/suisse/L-accord-FATCA-passe-le-cap-du-Conseil-national/story/29090313
They already know. I just posted this link in the FATCA part of the forum before I saw this.
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/Struggling_small_banks_sweat_over_US_tax_bill.html?cid=36849520
The agreement doesn’t have to go back to Parliament, now it’s been signed it’s a done deal.
My mistake. It seems they do need to vote on it.
http://www.thelocal.ch/20130909/swiss-mps-endorse-us-tax-compliance-deal
@Medea The bill is going back to the Senate, and as I said above it seems that this is probably because the US has pushed back the implementation date and so the date for entry into effect on the Swiss enforcement law needs to change.
@JDT
I’m VERY happy to see that you’re back!!!!
I was worried there for while ’cause you have’nt been posting here for a long time.
I can’t wait until every Swiss resident gets a questionaire from the bank asking them if they are a “US Person”. You can bet your Stgw57 that many more will be voting SVP in the next round of elections!!!
The bill is returning to the Conseil des Etats (Ständerat) as part of a minor “elimination des divergence” (Differenzbereinigungsverfahren), basically a vote to reconcile the differences with the Conseil national (Nationalrat).
Under the Swiss legislative process, there is a 100-day window period after the law is finally passed where 50,000 signatures can still be collected in order to hold a referendum to strike down the law. The SVP / UDC has described the agreement as a “Colonial Treaty” (http://www.24heures.ch/suisse/accord-fatca-cap-conseil-national/story/29090313), so there could be a possibility that they could launch a campaign criticizing the law as a major encroachment into Swiss sovereignty.
Interesting is that there are two times more Swiss citizens living in the US (circa 80,000) than US citizens living in Switzerland (circa 40,000). Swiss citizens in the US will see their banking services back home cut and Swiss companies will have a problem in expatriating their employees to America. What impact this may have will be interesting, as Switzerland is the fifth largest cumulative foreign direct investor in the US (212 billion USD, slightly more than Canada at 210.9 billion USD, and not far behind Japan, a country with 16 times the population of Switzerland, at 289.5 billion USD), Swiss companies that operate in the US are the largest foreign contributors of income tax to the US treasury, Swiss companies maintain 430,000 jobs in the US and employees of Swiss affiliates in the US have average salaries of 95,200 USD per year.
Switzerland may be small, but it punches way above its belt. Be careful where you chase your “taxes”, it can cost jobs and a lot of investments!
Those are amazing statistics Schweiz-Amerikaner ! The consequences to the US economy could be very large indeed !
Let us pray for a referendum. Some serious activism is needed.
The title and caption for this article (as translated by Google translate) looks interesting:
http://www.hebdo.ch/hebdo/mieux-comprendre/detail/norberto-birchler-le-fatca-peut-aussi-s%E2%80%99appliquer-%C3%A0-une-fromagerie
“…Norberto Birchler: “The FATCA may also apply to Fribourg cheese”
Taxation. The tax treaty between Bern and Washington bring great complications. Even for companies that have a priori no connection with the United States. With the passage of the National Council on September 9, Switzerland ……”
I leave it to others to read and understand the rest.
For French speakers;
http://www.hebdo.ch/search_hebdo?s=fatca
Recommend this link from Victoria’s blog – has personal stories – in French of those affected by FATCA and CBT
Link is here:
http://thefranco-americanflophouse.blogspot.ca/2013/09/mise-au-point-un-passeport-americain.html
Victoria’s description;
…”…The video was produced by Swiss news but everything in it applies to American citizens, Green Card holders and “Accidental Americans” living in the EU even those who think they are exclusively French, German, Belgian or British citizens…”…
The “FATCA Archive” at http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/treaties/Pages/FATCA-Archive.aspx has not been updated since 6/11/2013. This is what it said then:
The following jurisdictions are treated as having an intergovernmental agreement in effect:
Model 1 IGA
• Denmark (11-19-2012)
• Germany (5-31-2013)
• Ireland (1-23-2013)
• Mexico (11-19-2012)
• Norway (4-15-2013)
• Spain (5-14-2013)
• United Kingdom (9-12-2012)
Model 2 IGA
• Japan (6-11-2013)
• Switzerland (2-14-2013)
This is a complete list of joint FATCA statements between the United States and other countries:
• Joint Communiqué on the Occasion of the Publication of the Model Agreement (7-25-2012)
• Japan (6-21-2012)
• Switzerland (6-21-2012)
• France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK (2-7-2012)
So are they going to be keeping it a secret how many countries have signed up?
I can’t find the thread where we were speculating about what Flaherty’s big announcement today would be. It was NOT about an IGA — something about a “capital markets regulator”.
http://www.fin.gc.ca/n13/13-119-eng.asp