Questions and Answers

International withholding tax agreements make it possible for persons who are liable to foreign taxation and who have bank accounts in Switzerland, to pay tax whilst protecting their privacy. The Agreement between the Swiss Confederation and the United Kingdom on the Cooperation in the Area of Taxation (IWT-UK) also includes an administrative assistance clause (Article 33). The corresponding Federal Act on International Withholding Tax (IWTA) governs the relevant procedure.

Within the Federal Tax Administration (FTA) the Service for the Exchange of Information on Tax Matters SEI is responsible for the execution of the administrative assistance. It holds the responsibility for the exchange of information between the United Kingdom and Switzerland, but not for the exchange of the cash flow.

The United Kingdom sends Switzerland monthly information requests regarding selected persons. The FTA checks the requests, issues disclosure orders and sends them to the information holders. The information holders are thus obliged to declare the number of accounts (quantity) of the persons concerned and transfer the information using the form 685. Once the person concerned is informed and the information is checked by the FTA it will be transferred to the United Kingdom, provided that after a possible appeals procedure administrative assistance can still be granted.

Banks according to the definition under the Swiss Banking Act and all other paying agents that are registered with the FTA (Article 32 IWTA).

Yes, the information holders are legally bound be the IWTA.

Once a month the FTA submits a disclosure order by post regarding the person concerned. This has to be processed within 14 days after receipt of the disclosure order.

The disclosure orders are sent in paper form. The data of the order can optionally be read by a QR-code.
The response form 685 has to be filled in electronically using SnapForm, printed on paper and returned to the FTA by post. The software SnapForm can be downloaded free of charge under http://www.snapform.com/download-viewer.html.

A 2D-code is a data pattern made up of points and lines from which information can be read and saved. The data is read by a scanner, after which the data can be processed electronically. Common models are the QR-code (ISO/IEC 18004:2006) or the Aztec-code (ISO/IEC 24778).

In order to read-in the data of the QR-code a common picture-scanner (imager), which can interpret QR-codes based on ISO/IEC 18004:2006 is sufficient (configured: error correction level L, encoding UTF-8). Normally this scanner works as a key-board emulator and does not require an additional driver.

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Questions and Answers