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Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva:

Last week, Switzerland agreed to tax money held by UK taxpayers in Swiss bank accounts for the first time, while not revealing their identity. While it looks like a fairly compromising deal, some are rather negative about it.

HM Treasury said in a release on August 24th: "Under the terms of the agreement, existing funds held by UK taxpayers in Switzerland will be subject to a significant one-off deduction of between 19% and 34% to settle past tax liabilities, leaving those who have already paid their taxes unaffected. As a gesture of good faith Swiss banks will make an up-front payment from Switzerland to Britain of CHF 500m (around US$615m). From 2013, a new withholding tax of 48% on investment income and 27% on gains will ensure the effective future taxation of UK residents with funds in Swiss bank accounts."

An initial agreement was drafted in October last year.

"The world has changed for tax evaders," Dave Hartnett of HMRC, the UK tax authority (Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs) told the BBC.

Germany and Switzerland agreed to a similar deal in early August. Under this agreement, says the Swiss Confederation’s website, persons resident in Ger......................

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