Tax Treaty Case Law around the Globe 2015

I. S. 324Introduction

Switzerland finds itself in ongoing tax disputes with different countries, the best known being a dispute with the United States. The “US-cases” this involved, mainly focused on the question of the permissibility and the requirements of group requests for information under the double taxation agreement (DTA) between Switzerland and the United States, which is not (or only partly) based on the OECD Model Convention. The case at hand, however, concerns a request from France and the affected taxpayers were explicitly named. The Swiss Federal Administrative Court had to answer several questions about the meaning of the term “foreseeably relevant”.

Before addressing the specifics of the case, however, it is worth briefly recalling the history: Switzerland traditionally only granted administrative assistance in tax matters limited to information necessary for carrying out the provisions of the applicable agreement in relation to taxes that were the object of the agreement. Furthermore, information could not be transmitted if protected by a professional secret such as banking secrecy. Due to political pressure exerted by the OECD, the Federal Government announced on 13 March...