Italian tax police demand details of 10,000 Swiss accounts

Italy’s tax police have asked Switzerland’s Federal Tax Administration for information regarding €6.7bn (£5.9bn, $7.7bn) that has been deposited in the country by Italian citizens.

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The police said the request, which concerns Italian citizens holding 9,953 financial interest in Switzerland, follows an investigation last year that led to a tax settlement deal between Italy and Credit Suisse, reports newswire Reuters.

They declined to confirm, however, whether the people the Italian authorities were seeking information about were Credit Suisse customers.

The police statement said that 3,297 people had already been identified through a national voluntary disclosure tax amnesty scheme used by the Italian government to encourage tax dodgers to declare funds held abroad in return for immunity from prosecution.

Tax settlement

In December, an Italian judge approved a settlement between Credit Suisse and the country’s authorities under which the Swiss bank agreed to pay €109.5m.

The tax investigation, started in 2015, was over an alleged fraudulent system used by the bank to transfer money offshore, mainly through the use of insurance policies.

“Credit Suisse considers the investigation by the Italian authorities into Credit Suisse’s cross-border business as closed,” the bank told Reuters in an emailed statement.

“The court approval marked the end of the investigation by Italian authorities into Credit Suisse AG’s Italian cross-border business for the period from 2008 to 2015,” it added.

Switzerland’s Federal Tax Administration declined to comment when contacted by the newswire, citing a confidentiality clause that applies to mutual requests for assistance on tax matters.