U.S.-Switzerland protocol will allow handover of UBS account holder information.

• Author: Nevius, Alistair M.

The United States and Switzerland announced a new protocol amending the income tax treaty between the two countries to allow the Swiss government to provide information to the IRS on U.S. account holders of Swiss bank UBS. The protocol has been approved by the Swiss Federal Council and was signed in Washington, DC, on March 31.

In August 2009, the United States and Switzerland negotiated an agreement under which the Swiss government was to hand over to the IRS for investigation information on approximately 4,450 UBS account holders. Among the selection criteria for determining which account holders' information would be released was failure to provide a Form W-9 for three years.

However, in January a Swiss court held that certain account holders' data did not have to be handed over because, the court ruled, mere failure to file a Form W-9 does not by itself amount to tax fraud (U.S. Taxpayers v. Swiss Federal Tax Administration). This ruling called into question the legality under Swiss law of the handover of any account holder data.

The new protocol to the U.S.-Switzerland treaty establishes the necessary legal basis to allow the Swiss...