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Mémoire
Bachelor thesis

The future of the banking secrecy for Swiss taxpayers in the light of the evolution of the international financial standards

    2016

31 f.

Mémoire de bachelor: Haute école de gestion de Genève, 2016

Banques
Secret professionnel
Suisse
English Swiss banking secrecy used to be a quirk of Swiss law that went largely untouched until recent times. Recently through high profile, year-long pressure by governments the world over, this secrecy, which had shielded account owners from declaring their financial assets and thus, taxable income, was partly dismantled. This oddity in Swiss law was always a hot button issue for many governments around the world, and lately came to the forefront of discussion for change in front of the Swiss government and the Swiss public. This paper aims to investigate how Swiss banking secrecy came about, and how it has evolved to its current reduced form thanks to internal and external actors, and the context of an increasingly globalized world. The transformation of attitudes towards privacy, financial responsibility and the external world for the Swiss taxpayer and voter has inevitably changed the Swiss banking secrecy. The actors involved in enacting any changes, namely the Swiss Parliament, the Federal Council, economic institutions and the Swiss people, all have their own motives, which will be analysed and discussed. It will be shown that cultural shifts and current events which at first glance might seem unconnected may have an impact on precise financial law. Throughout this paper, the aim is to track the increasing trend of total financial transparency, and to illustrate how a complex web of actors and events led to this and how this relates to Switzerland and the Swiss banking secrecy. It also aims to track the domestic opinion of the Swiss voters who, thanks to the Swiss legislative structure, will have a direct say on changes made regarding Swiss banking secrecy, for example the Initiative Matter. Switzerland whose shroud of banking secrecy was previously seen as untouchable, now no longer applies for foreign investors, as the automatic exchange of information is due to begin. Now the question remains, what is left of the Swiss banking secrecy for its domestic taxpayers, and what does its future hold? Finally, the conclusion shall outline the purpose of the banking secrecy in the eyes of the Swiss taxpayers, and in what way it could obstruct their willingness to financially contribute towards the community. In a global trend tending towards transparency, it will be explained that taxation of Swiss wealth and derived income will be achieved either through an extension of the Swiss withholding tax if the banking secrecy was to remain, or through increased tax authority knowledge of the taxpayers’ financial private sphere. With these theoretical incomes, the future of the Swiss banking secrecy and on a larger scale, the Swiss financial and fiscal systems are in flux, and it is an exciting time to be watching.
Language
  • English
Classification
Economics
Notes
  • Haute école de gestion Genève
  • International Business Management
  • hesso:hegge
License
License undefined
Identifiers
  • RERO DOC 278180
  • RERO R008564980
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/hesso/documents/314680
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