NEW DELHI: The government on Monday said it has received the third list of details of Swiss bank account holders, including some information of their real estate assets also. “We have received a third list of people who are having accounts in Swiss bank as part of the automatic information exchange pact between the two countries. The list will be scrutinised as per the procedure,” a government official said.
The official claimed that in fight against black money allegedly stashed abroad, this list has some more details than accounts including real estate and other holdings, like complete information on flats, apartments and condominiums owned by Indians in Switzerland, including earnings made from such properties.
From this year, Switzerland’s Federal Council, the country’s top governing body, has decided to implement a key recommendation of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, under which Swiss authorities will also share details about investments made by foreigners in the Swiss real estate sector.
The tax department will look into tax liabilities associated with those assets. India had received the first set of details from Switzerland under AEOI (Automatic Exchange of Information) in September 2019. In September 2020, India received the second set of Swiss account details of its nationals and entities, along with 85 other recipient countries with which Switzerland’s Federal Tax Administration (FTA) exchanged information.
“This year, the AEOI involved a total of 96 countries. Antigua and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Dominica, Ghana, Lebanon, Macau, Pakistan, Qatar, Samoa and Vauatu were added to the existing list of 86 countries. With 70 countries, the exchange of information was reciprocal. In the case of 26 countries, Switzerland received information but did not provide any, either because those countries do not yet meet the international requirements on confidentiality and data security (14) or because they chose not to receive data (12),” Switzerland’s Federal Council said.