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Comment by lawl | Hacker News Reader

> Swiss banks doesn't actually disclose to swiss authorities, even though the have a wealth tax based partially on the money in your bank account.

(i'm swiss)

I believe there is no way in hell they could have passed this legislation if it included giving data of swiss citizens to the swiss government.

People here cherish their banking secrecy and it's still somewhat part of the national identity.

From a swiss point of view it was/is pretty much: The US is pressuring us too much, we'll have to give up banking secrecy, but only for foreigners.

If they didn't do that, i'm fairly certain it would have been shot down by the people with a referendum.

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> From a swiss point of view it was/is pretty much: The US is pressuring us too much, we'll have to give up banking secrecy, but only for foreigners.

Exactly, this is also what neighboring Austria did a few years ago.

It is nice that Switzerland takes the attention for "banking secrecy" because other countries that have it in law get to fly under the radar.

As always, people that have better reading comprehension skills get their advantage.

After the 2009 financial crisis and the regulatory requirements which followed the major international Swiss banks were forced to split their retail and investment business into separate entities at about the same time they also started restructuring some other things I am pretty sure they saw this coming after FATCA / MIFID because they have all since split their Swiss business from their international business at least legally (separate legal entities under one brand and holding corp etc.)

I loved in Switzerland recently, and I never really understood how the wealth tax works when the banks don't talk to the tax authorities. Is it entirely optional?

You fill out a tax declaration every year. If you don't disclose some values and this is discovered later on, you will be punishable with a fine (between 30% and 300% of the tax on the non-disclosed values). The fine can be avoided in some cases by self-indictment, but of course you'll still have to pay the avoided taxes plus interest.

If you even fake documents to avoid taxes, then you can end up in jail.

This system of "voluntary" tax declarations is like a contract between the government and the citizens: Government doesn't stick their nose into bank accounts of citizens, while citizens pay taxes on their assets. I'm not sure if it's a good system, but it has mostly worked out so far.

Under reporting is possible to some extent everywhere, that doesn’t mean that paying taxes is “optional”.

Hidden money cannot be spent and as soon as it surfaces you would have quite some explaining to do.

Over reporting is actually beneficial, because at the end of the year you can file a correction and the government will refund you the difference, plus interest. The interest rate, while not amazing, is better than any bank would give.

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