On 6 April 2020, the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters (SIF) published the peer review report on the exchange of information upon request for tax purposes.
As a result, the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has again given Switzerland an overall rating of "largely compliant" in the second round of the peer review on the exchange of information upon request for tax purposes.
The report notes significant improvements in practice, in particular with regard to bearer shares and the efficiency of the exchange of information.
In particular, the Global Forum sees room for improvement in the availability of information on beneficial owners, the rights of natural and legal persons affected by a request for mutual assistance (notification and right of appeal) and confidentiality requirements.
By way of comparison, the Global Forum began the second round of examinations of its members in 2016 and has published 69 reports to date: 14 states received the rating "conforming", 46 like Switzerland "largely conforming", 8 "partially conforming", and 1 state received the rating "not conforming".
The press release and the report are available here.
