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US presses Swiss banks for tax evasion data

US authorities have given Switzerland until Tuesday to transmit data from tax evaders in the United States who have stashed assets away in Swiss banks, the SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday.

Published: 5 September 2011 09:23 CEST

US presses Swiss banks for tax evasion data

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The United States has asked for detailed information on US nationals who have hidden their money in Switzerland, the paper said, basing its report on a three-page letter from the US deputy attorney general James Cole, dated August 31, addressed to the Swiss authorities.

The letter concerned Switzerland’s second biggest bank, Credit Suisse, as well as around another 10 banks, notably Julius Baer, Wegelin, and the cantonal banks of Zurich and Basel, the Sunday paper said.

US authorities want all the data concerning private customers and US foundations which have deposited at least $50,000 (€35,000) in Switzerland between the period of 2002 and July 2010.

This latest request is not the first by US officials. Switzerland’s biggest bank UBS was forced to disclose the names of 4,450 US clients for whom it had offered to conceal funds from the eyes of the US tax inspectors.

The bank paid a fine of $780 million to avoid losing its banking licence in the United States.

According to an anonymous banker quoted by SonntagsZeitung, Swiss banks risk a fine of around two billion francs ($2.5 billion) to settle this latest tax evasion affair.

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Why Norway's earnings dropped in 2020 despite steady taxes from individuals

Photo: Giorgio Grani on Unsplash

While the state’s reduced income is linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the measures to combat the spread of the virus, individuals last year actually paid more tax than the year before. 0.8 percent, to be precise.

Yet the Norwegian tax revenue amounted to 858 billion kroner, 85.8 billion euro, last year, a 9.1 percent decrease from 2019, according to official figures from Statistics Norway (SSB).

Plummeting oil prices

The main driver of the decline is the reduced income from taxes on petroleum. The industry only paid 28 billion kroner, about 2.8 billion euro, in taxes last year. A staggering 80 percent drop from the 134 billion kroner paid the year before.

The petroleum industry is by far Norway’s largest economic sector. And, like all oil-exporting countries, Norway has been hard-hit by the sudden drop in demand – coupled with a global glut – for petroleum, noted, among others, by the OECD.

The impact of the pandemic on the international petroleum and crude oil market was undeniable when the barrel price plummeted from 45 dollars in March last year, to a record low at under 25 dollars in April. And all through the pandemic it fluctuated below 45 dollars, before eventually making a recovery in December, according to the overview from Business Insider.

Support investments

To help the industry weather the storm, Norway slashed its taxes and fees.

“Oil and gas industry is an important resource for Norway,” said Minister of Finance Jan Tore Sanner in a May press release.

“It is therefore important for the government to contribute to upholding the activity in the oil and gas industry and the suppliers to this industry in order to ensure that they make it through the Covid-19 crisis,” he continued.

The goal was to free up an additional 100 billion kroner, 10 billion euro, for investments.

Increased activity

The approach seems to have been successful. A recent report by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD, ‘Oljedirektoratet’), concludes that activity on Norway’s continental shelf was bustling last year, despite the problems plaguing the industry in the rest of the world.

“While 2020 has been an unusual year in many ways,” said Director General Ingrid Sølvberg in NPD in a press release, “investments on the Shelf are at the same level as previous years.”

Fossil-dependent

Not everyone shares the enthusiasm, however.

Member of Parliament Kari Elisabeth Kaski from the Socialist Left Party thinks the investment level may increase Norway’s reliance on the fossil energy sector. This is particularly problematic, she believes, in a time where more resources and attention ought to be directed towards sustainable and green energy solutions.

“The reality is that one has given subsidies of such a magnitude that investments in oil have exceeded expectations,” she told newspaper Aftenposten in January.

“This makes Norway more dependent on oil, an unwise direction for Norway to take in the recovery of this crisis,” she continued.

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