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The finance department said 6,150 Zurich taxpayers came clean on
previously undisclosed assets in 2017, tripling the previous
record set in 2016 and helping to disclose 1.3 billion Swiss
francs ($1.33 billion) in hidden wealth so far.
The authorities have been able to handle only about half the
cases so far, however, so they expect the sum to rise.
Under the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development's new Automatic Exchange of Information program,
more than 100 countries are beginning to exchange financial
information amid a global clampdown on tax evasion.
The agreement aims to ensure offshore accounts are known to
authorities in the country where the account holder owes tax.
Switzerland, the world's biggest center for managing offshore
wealth, will get the first information from other countries this
year, starting with data collected in 2017.
Switzerland in 2010 introduced a rule letting taxpayers
self-declare untaxed assets one time without facing a fine.
Zurich said its tax office had beefed up staffing in the unit
handling self-disclosures, helping double the number of cases it
was able to process during the year to 3,800. That included some
that had been received at end-2016.
The efforts generated 104 million francs in additional tax
revenue.
Meanwhile, the canton of Lucerne said it had generated 15.5
million francs in additional taxes from new self-disclosures
last year, seeing an uptick in the number of cases but a decline
in the sums each taxpayer declared.
Figures for other cantons were not immediately available.
(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi, Editing by William Maclean)
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