Tax Treaty Case Law around the Globe 2016

S. 409Chapter 35 Switzerland: Notion of the Persons Involved in the EoI Procedure

Michael Beusch

35.1. Introduction

To recall briefly: Switzerland has adopted the OECD standard on administrative assistance in tax matters since the landmark decision of the Federal Council on 13 March 2009. According to this standard as set out in article 26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention, not only information relevant to the correct application of the applicable double tax convention (DTC) must be exchanged, but also information assumed to be relevant for the enforcement of the national tax law of the requesting state. This implies that according to the OECD standard, information must not be withheld solely because it is owned by a bank.

The case at hand concerns article 26 of the DTC of 26 February 2010 between Switzerland and the Netherlands (hereinafter DTC CH-NL). The issues raised concern the function and consequences of the criterion of theS. 410 foreseeable relevance of the requested information as well as the notion of the person involved to the exchange of information procedure and its impact on the extent of the obligation to provide administrative assistance.

35.2. Facts of the case

On 13 June 2013, the ...