Swiss banks, tax office to share data on Dutch clients with Netherlands

The Swiss Tax Authorities may give the Netherlands information about a group of Dutch clients at Swiss bank UBS, the highest court in Lausanne ruled on Monday. The Dutch Tax Authorities are looking for information on Dutch with hidden assets at the Swiss bank, NU.nl reports. The Netherlands filed this so-called group request last year. As the Dutch Authorities don't know which Dutch have hidden assets at the bank, no names were named in the request. This led to a lower court not allowing the request. According to the court, the request is not targeted enough and can therefore be considered a "fishing expedition" - angling for information without knowing exactly what information the other party has. The high court disagreed with this ruling. According to the high court, the Dutch Tax Authorities requested additional information from USB, such as names and tax numbers. It involved customers on which the bank previously provided insufficient information. According to the judges, the political situation also changed in the mean time - the exchange of data is now based on a bilateral tax convention that Switzerland and the Netherlands closed. The Dutch Tax Authorities can therefore request information about depositors without giving their names, provided that the request contains sufficient information to identify the account holders concerned.