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US to stay on Swiss 'hidden funds' trail
20 Feb 2009Washington has signalled it will not ease back on demands for Swiss bank UBS to hand over the banking records of thousands of US citizens.
The government has sued UBS, demanding it give the information to the Internal Revenue Service.
"We are committed to moving forward with the summons enforcement process," IRS commissioner Doug Shulman said. "This action sends a strong signal to taxpayers hiding their money offshore."
The action came the day after UBS agreed to pay $780 million (£548 million) and identify certain US clients in a deal to resolve charges that it helped rich Americans evade taxes. US tax authorities said a request for the records under a Swiss treaty may result in the production of records for only about 300 accounts.
According to the lawsuit, as many as 52,000 US customers used Swiss banking secrecy to evade taxes. Washington says that of those secret accounts, 20,000 contained securities and the rest cash totalling about $14.8 billion.
