Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss bank UBS will close or transfer Wednesday 1 July, a month early, all US resident bank accounts that are not declared to US tax authorities, an unnamed official of the bank has told Swiss financial news agency AWP (20 Minutes and romandie.ch). The information could not be confirmed Tuesday evening, 30 June.

The report refers to account-holders who were earlier informed by the bank that it would close their accounts if they did not wish to transfer the money to a dollar-based account in the United States.

The move was part of an agreement between the bank and the US Justice Department, which is pushing for UBS to provide the names of 52,000 American clients.

Earlier in 2009 the bank posted this notice for US clients:

The “John Doe” summons seeks certain records related to any US taxpayer, who at any time during the years ended December 31, 2002 through December 31, 2007, had signature or other authority with respect to any financial account maintained at, monitored by, or managed through any office in Switzerland of UBS or its subsidiaries or affiliates and for which such US taxpayer did not provide UBS with an IRS Form W-9. The “John Doe” summons relates to the tax periods for the years ended December 31, 2002 through December 31, 2007.

The ATS wire service report that cites AWP does not mention that the new ruling applies not only to offshore accounts of US citizens and residents in the US, but to many account holders who are US citizens based in Switzerland, temporarily or long-term.

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