Netherlands request UBS account data

The Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has received a request from Dutch authorities for information on a large number of UBS account holders living in the Netherlands as part of a tax investigation. It is the first large-scale request for assistance with tax-related banking information that Switzerland has received from a country other than the United States. The request was originally received in July and concerns data on UBS accounts held by Netherlands residents who did not demonstrate compliance with Dutch tax authorities from February 2013 to December 2014. The request is made possible by the revised Tax Administrative Assistance Act of 2014, which modified banking secrecy regulations in an effort to make it easier to catch tax evaders. An interview in the French-language newspaper Le Temps on Saturday raised the question of whether the request might be a "fishing expedition" – a general inquiry rather than a demand for specific information – which is not ...