Switzerland Signs Its Third Tax Information Accord With France

Wendy Spires

1 September 2009

Switzerland and France have signed an additional agreement amending their double taxation agreement to provide for the exchange of information in line with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s standard.

The Alpine state’s accord with France is the third extended DTA Switzerland has signed since its Federal Council accepted the extended administrative assistance clause of Article 26 of the OECD Model Convention in March. DTAs with Denmark and Luxembourg were signed in mid-August.

Financial centres must sign twelve agreements including the OECD standard in order to achieve “white-list” status as a jurisdiction that has substantially implemented the internationally agreed tax standard.

Switzerland has negotiated DTAs including an extended administrative assistance clause with ten countries - Norway, Mexico, the US, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, the UK, Austria, Finland and Qatar - which have been agreed but not yet signed.

The Swiss Federal Council has already given the go-ahead for the DTAs with Norway, France, Mexico and the UK to be signed. The other initialled DTAs will be submitted to the Federal Council for approval shortly, the Swiss government said in a statement.