BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 13
By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:
Switzerland will exchange financial information with Azerbaijan, Trend reports referring to Swiss media Dec. 13.
This week the Cantonal Council of the Swiss parliament has approved the expansion of the list of states in respect of which an agreement on the automatic exchange of banking and tax information will operate in Switzerland.
Thus, Switzerland will provide these countries with data on the bank accounts of their citizens as well as persons living in Switzerland as fiscal residents.
In turn, Switzerland will receive information on the bank details of accounts of Swiss citizens and (or) residents in these partner countries.
Countries in relation to which expansion has been adopted, in addition to Azerbaijan, include Albania, Brunei, Vanuatu, Ghana, Dominica, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Macau, the Maldives, Nigeria, Niue (part of New Zealand), Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Samoa, Saint Martin, Trinidad and Tobago, Lebanon and Oman.
Switzerland currently receives financial data from 75 countries and shares them with 63 countries. This is because some countries either don’t meet the requirements for data security and confidentiality (Belize, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Costa Rica, Curacao, Montserrat, Romania, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Cyprus), or they themselves prefer not to receive data from Switzerland (Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands).
Swiss authorities have recently reported that they provided detailed information on approximately 3.1 million bank accounts opened by foreigners (or persons residing abroad for tax reasons) to their countries of origin or residence. In turn, Switzerland received information on bank details of about 2.4 million accounts opened by Swiss citizens and (or) residents in 75 partner countries.
