MIAMI — The Swiss and U.S. governments announced a deal Wednesday to settle American demands for the identities of suspected tax dodgers, despite Switzerland’s vaunted bank secrecy.
They kept all details under wraps, including how many of the 52,000 names sought by the IRS from banking giant UBS AG will be revealed.
Depending on the scale of the deal, it could be a new blow to Switzerland’s reputation as a safe place to hide assets from the tax man back home.
Switzerland has long been under pressure from European neighbors and the U.S. to open its bank records.
The IRS case against UBS has been partly credited with pushing the Swiss government to agree in March to comply with tax-investigation rules from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. UBS earlier this year named about 300 American clients in a separate case.
The IRS in February asked U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold in Miami to force Zurich-based UBS to turn over names of 52,000 American clients believed to be hiding nearly $15 billion in assets in secret accounts.
