Swiss-German tax deal due in 'days or weeks'

A deal between Germany and Switzerland to regularise untaxed money held by Germans in secret accounts will be clinched soon, a paper reported on Sunday, citing an insider with knowledge of the negotiations. The agreement was expected in "comings days or weeks", with the only questions still open quite simple to resolve, the Swiss SonntagsZeitung quoted the source as saying.
Last year, Germany and Switzerland agreed the outlines of a deal to impose a withholding tax on an estimated 200 billion euros ($283 billion) hidden in secret Swiss accounts.
A withholding tax means the Swiss will not automatically share information on individual bank accounts with Germany, preserving the banking privacy crucial to building Switzerland's offshore wealth management industry.
However, how high the withholding tax will be has not been settled and the two countries also need to find a retroactive solution for legacy wealth.
The source put the withholding tax level at 15 percent, with a chance it could be 20 percent, the SonntagsZeitung said. On Saturday the newspaper NZZ quoted finance minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf as saying she hoped the agreement would be clinched this summer but several key elements had yet to be finalised.
The spokesman for the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters was not available for comment.