Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland made no concessions to the US in the tax agreement that was initialed 18 June, and the case of UBS, which is being taken to court in the US to reveal names of account holders, was not part of the discussions, says Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz.

He told Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung in a weekend interview that he had simply mentioned that he couldn’t imagine the tax treaty passing a popular referendum if the US doesn’t shift its position on the UBS issue. He added that he expects a change, but he also expects that UBS will have to do more.

The US tax authority, the IRS, is demanding the names of 52,000 holders of UBS bank accounts.

Switzerland is also seeing some relief on another front, reports Le Temps, with the likelihood that the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) will agree to consult its members in future on “delicate” issues such as banking secrecy. Switzerland has complained that it was not informed appropriately about the creation of a gray list by the OECD of countries considered uncooperative in tax matters.

Related, TSR special file on UBS and Swiss banking secrecy (Fre)

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