Era of Swiss bank secrecy over, details to come from Sept

India will start getting details of bank accounts held by its citizens in Switzerland from September, ending the era of Swiss bank secrecy.

The development is a major success of the Modi government's fight against black money ever since it first came to power in 2014.

"India will receive information of the calendar year 2018 in respect of all financial accounts held by Indian residents in Switzerland. This will be a significant step in the government's fight against black money as the era of Swiss bank secrecy will finally be over," the Income Tax department said in a tweet.

The announcement follows meeting of a Swiss delegation led by Nicolas Mario Luscher, Deputy Head of Tax Division, State Sectt for International Finance, with Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey and senior tax officials of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

The first automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI) under Common Reporting Standard (CRS) would start from next month.

During the 2-day meeting in the Capital on August 29-30, both sides discussed bilateral exchange of information matters to expedite execution of tax information sharing requests made by India in specific cases.

"Enhancing collaboration in offshore tax compliance matters were also discussed," the department said.
IANS