June 17, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: William Tranghese (202) 225-5601
STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN RICHARD E. NEAL ON PASSAGE OF UBS TREATY LEGISLATION BY SWISS PARLIAMENT
Will help crackdown on worldwide tax avoidance
Congressman Richard E. Neal, a senior member of the Ways and means Committee, released the following statement today after the Swiss parliament passed a law requiring their government to give the IRS the names of thousand of U.S. tax evaders hiding their assets in offshore bank accounts. As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures, Neal has repeatedly called on the Swiss to remove bank secrecy barriers and disclose the names of Americans engaged in offshore tax avoidance schemes with UBS. His Subcommittee held two hearings last year on the Swiss dispute, including one with IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, which resulted in a new law requiring disclosure of U.S. account holders in foreign banks raising $8 billion in lost tax revenue.
“With the approval of the UBS treaty today, Swiss lawmakers are finally honoring the commitment their government made to the United States last year. Thousands of U.S. tax cheats will now be held accountable, and another offshore tax avoidance scheme has been exposed. Today’s agreement represents another step forward in the broader effort to crack down on tax avoidance worldwide. The IRS and DOJ deserve great credit for their diligence and perseverance.
As I said last August, information sharing and international enforcement remain serious problems. And it is costing the American taxpayers billions of dollars each year. But with today’s development, and with tougher legislation from Congress, tax offenders are being put on notice that the days of hiding money offshore are coming to and end,” said Congressman Richard E. Neal.
