U.S. sets ultimatum in Swiss bank tax dispute: reports

[FarCenter]

The United States is pushing for Switzerland to hand over thousands more bank client names as it did last year when it allowed UBS to bend bank secrecy and reveal the details of around 4,450 clients to avoid criminal charges.

"They won't be contented with less than in the UBS case," former U.S. Justice Department investigator Peter Henning told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper.

He added that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service felt betrayed because many UBS clients had shifted their assets to smaller Swiss banks rather than declaring them.

The SonntagsZeitung quoted Swiss sources close to the talks as saying Washington is seeking details of all U.S. clients with accounts worth at least $50,000 between 2002 and 2010 at banks including Credit Suisse, private banks Julius Baer and Wegelin as well as the Zurich and Basel cantonal banks.

That could imply tens of thousands of accounts, the paper said, far more than Switzerland could deliver under a double taxation agreement with the United States that it approved in 2009 but is still awaiting ratification by the U.S. Senate.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/04/us-switzerland-usa-tax-idUSTRE7830IA20110904