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Tettamanti, Tito
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2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Banking secrecy is not tax evasion
According to a report published in the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche, Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf wants to grant Swiss authorities access to banking data in cases where tax evasion is suspected. She explained that in view of recent concessions granted to other states like Germany and the UK it's only logical that banking secrecy laws should be relaxed within the country too. The finance minister has obviously succumbed to the sermons of foreign tax investigators, the liberal daily Corriere del Ticino writes in anger: "Switzerland cannot afford to have individuals falling for the slogan 'banking secrecy is tax evasion', be it for ideological reasons or for the sake of keeping their post. … If we really want to protect our economic interests we need a new common stance on the protection of banking secrecy and politicians who are realistic enough to see that the world's borders go beyond those of the EU. We need a policy that prevents red tape fanatics from further hindering financial operations in Switzerland. … We shouldn't allow ourselves to be fooled by hypocritical sermons about morals."
» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Banks, » Switzerland
Supervising European accounts too expensive?
In the daily Corriere del Ticino the vice president of the European Policy Forum in London, Tito Tettamanti, defends with reference to a study Switzerland's financial policy, which levies a 15 percent tax on interest accrued on Swiss deposits and denies access to capital gains. "International supervision of accounts doesn't work, as a study carried out by the European Policy Forum in November proves. The introduction of such controls at the 1,243 European and Swiss banks would cost 753 million euros plus a further 693 million years for implementation per year. Toughening these controls to the extent the EU demands would double the costs. By contrast the system of taxing interest profits directly at the source functions extremely well and costs very little. This raises the question: ... Why do bureaucrats want to stick their noses inefficiently and at great expense into the tax affairs of private people? I have an idea, but I'll leave it to the reader to come up with the answer, which is obvious."
» full article (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Tax Policy, » Switzerland, » Europe
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