Swiss to let banks lift secrecy in US tax deal

No taxation without representation

 

Yes and also no representation without taxation - pay for play?

 

I'm puzzled by the release of this story now. Swiss banks have been cooperating with the IRS for many months now and have long since turned over lists of U.S. Citizens with swiss bank accounts. In fact, if memory serves me right, after an agreement was struck,the IRS made some kind of clemency offer many months ago (was it sometime in 2012, or even 2011?) for those coming forward voluntarily.

This must be the official Swiss Government statement coming out now, well after the fact! And the government appears to be wanting to cover, retroactively, the bank's asses, namely UBS, that have already turned over information to the IRS.. There is more to this story than meets the eye.

This reminds me of Phil Gramm getting Glass-Steagall killed, for among other reasons, to protect Travelers and Citicorp after the fact. And they got away with it!

Pekelo is right. We said we'd break every bone in their collective Swiss banker's body if they refused to rat on their clients. Well, probably not those exact words.

I think if you do a search, you'll even find discussion of this on ET.

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See the appropriate Wiki article from which the following is taken. The law referred to is the "Financial Services Modernization Act" :

"A year before the law was passed, Citicorp, a commercial bank holding company, merged with the insurance company Travelers Group in 1998 to form the conglomerate Citigroup, a corporation combining banking, securities and insurance services under a house of brands that included Citibank, Smith Barney, Primerica, and Travelers. Because this merger was a violation of the Glass–Steagall Act and the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, the Federal Reserve gave Citigroup a temporary waiver in September 1998.[1] Less than a year later, GLB was passed to legalize these types of mergers on a permanent basis. The law also repealed Glass–Steagall's conflict of interest prohibitions "against simultaneous service by any officer, director, or employee of a securities firm as an officer, director, or employee of any member bank."

There is just no telling how much Gramm benefited for "services rendered" but it must have been a magnificent sum.

 

Switzerland is finished. Better to go Singapore or Hong Kong now.

 

Come on guys the IRS really needs your tax dollars so please give what you can.

http://origin-www.bloomberg.com/new...-conferences-drawing-congress-s-scrutiny.html