[Note: FATCA (the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) is a law
requiring Swiss banks to transmit the financial data of US expatriates,
as well as many Swiss citizens, to the IRS.]
October 16, 2013, from Bilan, Switzerland:
The Swiss are likely to vote to overturn a FATCA agreement with the US Treasury Department, which was recently ratified by Parliament. On October 8, a STOP-FATCA referendum committee was set up, amid skepticism and fears of US reaction.
There is an atmosphere of vague fears, mostly half-formulated and at best half-expressed: such as losing access to the American market or even reprisals against Swiss corporations. These fears have gone to the point of leading the Swiss Parliament to accept an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with the US, which will not bring any benefit to the country other than averting retaliation.
Once started, however, a citizens' referendum follows its own momentum. "Speculations about a Swiss referendum against FATCA had been a matter of international buzz on the Internet, already three days before it was actually launched," said Laurent Franceschetti, a banking management consultant at SettleNext. He reckoned that the best allies of the Swiss referendum abroad might be found in the United States, where James George Jatras and his web site RepealFatca ( http://www.repealfatca.com/ ) are following the gathering of signatures with a mixture of joy and hope. If the referendum committee manages to gather 50,000 signatures by January 16, the Swiss people will be called on to vote on the matter in the course of the first half of 2014.
FATCA opponents calculate that the Swiss referendum may slow down, where still possible, the process of IGA signing [Inter-Governmental Agreements] started by the US Treasury. But it seems to have slowed down anyway: since the agreement with Germany on May 31, no new IGAs have been signed. Admittedly, France's IGA had been on the agenda for French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, when he was visiting the US in October 10-12 [but the signature meeting had to be called off because of the partial shutdown]. Even counting France, the Department of Treasury has therefore scored only 9 IGAs so far.
Considering that at least thirty IGAs would be needed, in as many countries, in order for FATCA to be a success, it appears that the Department of Treasury is still far off the mark. One major country, China, has apparently declined to go along the road to an IGA.
"FINMA Will Enforce U.S. Law"
Closer to Switzerland, Austria does not hide its skepticism about FATCA, according to Philippe Nantermod, PLR/FDP [liberal-radical] representative in the Parliament of the Swiss State of Valais [the Swiss Canton where the Matterhorn is located]. He had first to give up his project of launching a referendum because the PLR/FDP youth, at Swiss Federal level, had refused to back him up last June. But he is striking back, thanks to the fact that the referendum has taken off anyway, under the auspices of the Ligue Vaudoise and with a more decentralized structure. He is still confident to win over the general assembly of the PLR/FDP youth, at a meeting due to take place in Berne on November 2.
In the meantime, the vice-president of Swiss PLR youth, Alain Illi, has already committed his personal support in favor of the committee overseeing the referendum. And Philippe Nantermod stated that the PLR/FDP youth of Valais will set up stands in the streets to collect citizens' signatures.
The arguments in favor of the referendum are miscellaneous. For defenders of Swiss sovereignty, notably the Ligue Vaudoise [a Lausanne-based association] but also the Lobby des citoyens of Marc Studer, as well as for Yves Nidegger [a VOP (conservative) federal MP], Switzerland should not set a precedent. And Philippe Nantermod pointed out that the Swiss taking up of US tax law, including its updates, will set a precedent that the European Union will invoke to its advantage in the future.
As for the Parti Pirate, involved from the beginning in the referendum committee, it insists on the protection of privacy. And it has a point: data collected under FATCA will be spread throughout the many US government agencies. "Tomorrow FINMA [the Swiss banking regulation authority] will enforce US law, including its future evolutions--as when banks will be required to turn in the names of their employees," said Philippe Nantermod.
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