Federal Act
on International Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters
(Tax Administrative Assistance Act, TAAA)

¹ This Act gov­erns the ex­e­cu­tion of ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance in the ex­change of in­form­a­tion on re­quest and in the spon­tan­eous ex­change of in­form­a­tion:⁴

a.

in ac­cord­ance with agree­ments for the avoid­ance of double tax­a­tion;

b.

in ac­cord­ance with oth­er in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments that provide for the ex­change of in­form­a­tion re­gard­ing tax mat­ters.

² It is sub­ject to the derog­a­tions of in­di­vidu­al ap­plic­able agree­ments.

¹ The Fed­er­al Tax Ad­min­is­tra­tion (FTA) is re­spons­ible for ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance pro­ced­ures.

² Swiss courts and the com­pet­ent tax au­thor­it­ies un­der can­ton­al or com­mun­al law may send doc­u­ments dir­ectly by post to a per­son in a for­eign state if the rel­ev­ant agree­ment per­mits this.⁶

For the pur­poses of this Act:

a.⁷

the per­son con­cerned is the per­son about whom an ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance re­quest for in­form­a­tion is made or a per­son whose tax situ­ation is the sub­ject of a spon­tan­eous ex­change of in­form­a­tion;

b.

the in­form­a­tion hold­er is the per­son in Switzer­land who is in pos­ses­sion of the re­ques­ted in­form­a­tion.

b^bis.⁸

an ex­change of in­form­a­tion on re­quest is an ex­change of in­form­a­tion based on a re­quest for mu­tu­al ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance;

c.⁹

group re­quests are ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance re­quests for in­form­a­tion on two or more people with identic­al be­ha­viour pat­terns who are iden­ti­fi­able by means of pre­cise de­tails

d.¹⁰

a spon­tan­eous ex­change of in­form­a­tionis an un­re­ques­ted ex­change of in­form­a­tion avail­able to the FTA or the can­ton­al tax ad­min­is­tra­tions that may be of in­terest to the com­pet­ent for­eign au­thor­ity.

¹ …¹¹

² The ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance pro­ced­ure is car­ried out swiftly.

³ It is for­bid­den to provide in­form­a­tion on per­sons not con­cerned by the re­quest un­less this in­form­a­tion is fore­see­ably rel­ev­ant to the as­sess­ment of the tax situ­ation of the per­son con­cerned or the le­git­im­ate in­terests of per­sons who are not per­sons con­cerned out­weigh the in­terest of the re­quest­ing party in the trans­mis­sion of the in­form­a­tion.¹²

¹ Un­less oth­er­wise spe­cified in this Act, the Fed­er­al Act of 20 Decem­ber 1968¹³ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure (APA) ap­plies.

² Art­icle 22a para­graph 1 of the APA on stat­utory or of­fi­cial peri­ods does not ap­ply.

If the ap­plic­able con­ven­tion provides that the in­form­ing au­thor­ity may stip­u­late data pro­tec­tion pro­vi­sions that must be ob­served by the re­cip­i­ent au­thor­ity, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may enter in­to agree­ments on data pro­tec­tion. The data pro­tec­tion pro­vi­sions that must be ob­served must provide at least the same level of pro­tec­tion as the Fed­er­al Act of 19 June 1992¹⁵ on Data Pro­tec­tion.

¹ Re­quests from a for­eign state must be made in writ­ing in one of the of­fi­cial lan­guages of Switzer­land or in Eng­lish and in­clude the in­form­a­tion re­quired by the ap­plic­able agree­ment.

² If the ap­plic­able agree­ment does not spe­cify any re­quire­ments for the con­tent of a re­quest, and un­less oth­er­wise ap­par­ent from the agree­ment, the re­quest must in­clude the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion:

a.

the iden­tity of the per­son con­cerned, whereby the per­son may be iden­ti­fied by means oth­er than his name and ad­dress;

b.

a de­scrip­tion of the in­form­a­tion re­ques­ted and the form in which the re­quest­ing state wishes to re­ceive this in­form­a­tion;

c.

the tax pur­pose for which the in­form­a­tion is re­ques­ted;

d.

the grounds for pre­sum­ing that the in­form­a­tion re­ques­ted is in the re­ques­ted state or is in the pos­ses­sion of or un­der the con­trol of an in­form­a­tion hold­er res­id­ent in the re­ques­ted state;

e.

the name and ad­dress of the pre­sumed in­form­a­tion hold­er, if known;

f.

a de­clar­a­tion that the re­quest com­plies with the leg­al and reg­u­lat­ory re­quire­ments and the ad­min­is­trat­ive prac­tices of the re­quest­ing state, such that the re­quest­ing au­thor­ity would be en­titled to re­ceive the in­form­a­tion in ap­plic­a­tion of its law or with­in the scope of its nor­mal ad­min­is­trat­ive prac­tices if the in­form­a­tion was un­der its jur­is­dic­tion;

g.

a de­clar­a­tion that the re­quest­ing state has ex­hausted all reg­u­lar sources of in­form­a­tion avail­able un­der its do­mest­ic tax pro­ced­ure.

^2bis The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the re­quired con­tent of a group re­quest. ¹⁸

³ If the re­quire­ments un­der para­graphs 1 and 2 are not met, the FTA shall no­ti­fy the re­quest­ing au­thor­ity of this in writ­ing, and give it the op­por­tun­ity to sup­ple­ment its re­quest in writ­ing.¹⁹

The re­quest will not be con­sidered if:

a.

it con­sti­tutes a fish­ing ex­ped­i­tion;

b.

it re­quests in­form­a­tion not covered by the ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance pro­vi­sions of the ap­plic­able agree­ment; or

c.

it vi­ol­ates the prin­ciple of good faith, par­tic­u­larly if it is based on in­form­a­tion ob­tained through a crim­in­al of­fence un­der Swiss law.

¹ For the pur­pose of pro­cur­ing in­form­a­tion, only meas­ures which are in ac­cord­ance with Swiss law for the as­sess­ment and en­force­ment of the tax claims re­ferred to in the re­quest may be taken.

² In­form­a­tion that is in the pos­ses­sion of a bank, an­oth­er fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion, a man­dated or au­thor­ised per­son or a fi­du­ciary, or in­form­a­tion con­cern­ing a par­ti­cip­a­tion in a leg­al en­tity may be re­ques­ted if the ap­plic­able agree­ment provides for the trans­mis­sion of such.

³ For the pro­cure­ment of the re­ques­ted in­form­a­tion, the FTA shall con­tact the per­sons and au­thor­it­ies men­tioned in Art­icles 9 to 12 who can be as­sumed to have such in­form­a­tion.

⁴ The re­quest­ing au­thor­ity is not en­titled to in­spect files or be present dur­ing pro­ceed­ings in Switzer­land.

⁵ In­form­a­tion pro­cure­ment costs are not re­im­bursed.

⁶ Law­yers who are au­thor­ised to rep­res­ent parties be­fore ju­di­cial au­thor­it­ies in Switzer­land un­der the Law­yers Act of 23 June 2000²¹ (LawA) may re­fuse to sur­render doc­u­ments and in­form­a­tion pro­tec­ted un­der the pro­vi­sions on pro­fes­sion­al secrecy for law­yers.

¹ If the per­son con­cerned has lim­ited or un­lim­ited tax li­ab­il­ity in Switzer­land, the FTA shall ask him to pro­duce the in­form­a­tion in his pos­ses­sion that is likely to be ne­ces­sary to re­spond to the re­quest for ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance. It shall pre­scribe a dead­line for this.

² It shall in­form the per­son con­cerned of the con­tent of the re­quest in­so­far as this is ne­ces­sary for pro­cure­ment of the in­form­a­tion.

³ The per­son con­cerned must pro­duce all rel­ev­ant in­form­a­tion that is in his pos­ses­sion or un­der his con­trol.

⁴ The FTA shall un­der­take ad­min­is­trat­ive meas­ures such as audits or in­spec­tions in­so­far as this is ne­ces­sary to re­spond to the re­quest for ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance. It shall in­form the can­ton­al tax ad­min­is­tra­tion re­spons­ible for as­sess­ing the per­son con­cerned of the meas­ures en­vis­aged and al­low it to par­ti­cip­ate in their ex­e­cu­tion.

⁵ …²²

¹ The FTA shall re­quest the in­form­a­tion hold­er to pro­duce the in­form­a­tion that is likely to be ne­ces­sary to re­spond to the re­quest for ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance. It pre­scribes a dead­line for this.

² It shall in­form the in­form­a­tion hold­er of the con­tent of the re­quest in­so­far as this is ne­ces­sary for pro­cure­ment of the in­form­a­tion.

³ The in­form­a­tion hold­er must pro­duce all rel­ev­ant in­form­a­tion that is in its pos­ses­sion or un­der its con­trol.

⁴ …²³

¹ The FTA shall re­quest the com­pet­ent can­ton­al tax ad­min­is­tra­tions to trans­mit the in­form­a­tion that is likely to be ne­ces­sary to re­spond to the re­quest for ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance. If ne­ces­sary, the FTA may re­quest trans of the com­plete tax file.

² It shall trans­mit the en­tire con­tent of the re­quest to the can­ton­al tax ad­min­is­tra­tions and pre­scribe a dead­line for trans­mis­sion of the in­form­a­tion.

¹ The FTA shall re­quest the fed­er­al, can­ton­al and com­mun­al au­thor­it­ies to trans­fer the in­form­a­tion that is likely to be ne­ces­sary to re­spond to the re­quest for ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance.

² It shall in­form the au­thor­it­ies of the main con­tent of the re­quest and pre­scribe a dead­line for trans­mis­sion of the in­form­a­tion.

¹ Com­puls­ory meas­ures may be ordered:

a.

if car­ry­ing out com­puls­ory meas­ures is provided for un­der Swiss law; or

b.

to re­quest in­form­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 8 para­graph 2.

² The FTA may use only the fol­low­ing com­puls­ory meas­ures to ob­tain in­form­a­tion:

a.

the search of rooms or of ob­jects, doc­u­ments and re­cords in writ­ten form or on im­age and data car­ri­ers;

b.

the seizure of ob­jects, doc­u­ments and re­cords in writ­ten form or on im­age and data car­ri­ers;

c.

the en­forced ap­pear­ance of duly summoned wit­nesses.

³ Com­puls­ory meas­ures are ordered by the Dir­ect­or of the FTA or his au­thor­ised rep­res­ent­at­ive.

⁴ If there is a risk in delay and if a com­puls­ory meas­ure can­not be ordered in time, the per­son en­trus­ted with pro­cur­ing in­form­a­tion may un­der­take a com­puls­ory meas­ure on his own ini­ti­at­ive. This com­puls­ory meas­ure is val­id only if it is ap­proved by the Dir­ect­or of the FTA or his au­thor­ised rep­res­ent­at­ive with­in three busi­ness days.

⁵ The can­ton­al and com­mun­al po­lice forces and oth­er au­thor­it­ies as­sist the FTA in the ex­e­cu­tion of com­puls­ory meas­ures.

⁶ The can­ton­al tax ad­min­is­tra­tions con­cerned may par­ti­cip­ate in the ex­e­cu­tion of com­puls­ory meas­ures.

⁷ Fur­ther­more, Art­icles 42 and 45 to 50 para­graphs 1 and 2 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974²⁴ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law ap­ply.

¹ The FTA shall no­ti­fy the per­son con­cerned about the main parts of the re­quest. ²⁵

²It shall no­ti­fy the oth­er per­sons whom it must as­sume on the basis of the files are en­titled to ap­peal un­der Art­icle 19 para­graph 2 about the ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance pro­ced­ure.²⁶

³ If a per­son un­der para­graph 1 or 2 (per­son en­titled to ap­peal) is res­id­ent abroad, the FTA shall re­quest the in­form­a­tion hold­er to ask this per­son to des­ig­nate a per­son in Switzer­land who is au­thor­ised to ac­cept ser­vice. It pre­scribes a dead­line for this.

⁴ The FTA may dir­ectly in­form a per­son en­titled to ap­peal who is res­id­ent abroad provided:

a.

it is per­mit­ted to serve doc­u­ments in the state con­cerned by post; or

b.

the re­quest­ing au­thor­ity ex­pressly con­sents to this pro­ced­ure in the case at hand.²⁷

⁵ If a per­son en­titled to ap­peal can­not be reached, the FTA shall no­ti­fy him by way of the re­quest­ing au­thor­ity or by means of a pub­lic­a­tion in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette on the re­quest. It shall re­quest the per­son to des­ig­nate a per­son in Switzer­land who is au­thor­ised to ac­cept ser­vice. It pre­scribes a dead­line for this of ten days.²⁸.

¹ At the re­quest of the FTA, the in­form­a­tion hold­er must identi­fy the per­sons con­cerned by a group re­quest.

² The FTA shall no­ti­fy per­sons en­titled to ap­peal who are res­id­ent or dom­i­ciled in Switzer­land about the re­quest.

³ It shall ask the in­form­a­tion hold­er to no­ti­fy per­sons en­titled to ap­peal who are res­id­ent or dom­i­ciled abroad about the re­quest and at the same time to in­vite them to des­ig­nate a per­son au­thor­ised to ac­cept ser­vice in Switzer­land.

^3bis It may no­ti­fy a per­son en­titled to ap­peal who is res­id­ent or dom­i­ciled abroad dir­ectly if:

a.

it is per­mit­ted to serve doc­u­ments in the state con­cerned by post; or

b.

the re­quest­ing au­thor­ity ex­pressly agrees to this pro­ced­ure in the case at hand.³⁰

⁴ It shall fur­ther no­ti­fy per­sons con­cerned by the group re­quest an­onym­ously via a pub­lic­a­tion in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette:

a.

about the re­ceipt and con­tent of the re­quest;

b.³¹

about their ob­lig­a­tion to provide the FTA with one of the fol­low­ing ad­dresses:

1.

their ad­dress in Switzer­land if they are res­id­ent or dom­i­ciled there,

2.

their for­eign ad­dress, provided it is per­mit­ted to serve doc­u­ments in the state con­cerned by post, or

3.

the ad­dress of a per­son au­thor­ised to ac­cept ser­vice in Switzer­land;

c.

about the sim­pli­fied pro­ced­ure in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 16; and

d.

that a con­clus­ive de­cree will be is­sued for each per­son en­titled to ap­peal who has not con­sen­ted to the sim­pli­fied pro­ced­ure.

⁵ The peri­od al­lowed for provid­ing an ad­dress un­der para­graph 4 let­ter b is 20 days; it com­mences on the day fol­low­ing the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette pub­lic­a­tion.³²

⁶ If the FTA is un­able to de­liv­er a con­clus­ive de­cree to per­sons en­titled to ap­peal, it shall no­ti­fy them of such de­cree an­onym­ously via a pub­lic­a­tion in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette. The peri­od al­lowed for fil­ing an ap­peal com­mences on the day fol­low­ing no­ti­fic­a­tion in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette

¹ The per­sons en­titled to ap­peal may par­ti­cip­ate in the pro­ced­ure and in­spect the files.

² If the for­eign au­thor­ity demon­strates grounds for secrecy re­gard­ing cer­tain case doc­u­ments, the FTA may re­fuse to al­low a per­son en­titled to ap­peal to in­spect the cor­res­pond­ing files in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 27 of the APA³³.³⁴

¹ If the per­sons en­titled to ap­peal con­sent to trans­mis­sion of the in­form­a­tion to the re­quest­ing au­thor­ity, they shall no­ti­fy the FTA of this in writ­ing. This con­sent is ir­re­voc­able.

² The FTA con­cludes the pro­ced­ure by trans­mit­ting the in­form­a­tion to the re­quest­ing au­thor­ity, mak­ing ref­er­ence to the con­sent of the per­sons en­titled to ap­peal.

³ If the con­sent cov­ers only some of the in­form­a­tion, the or­din­ary pro­ced­ure is con­duc­ted for the re­main­ing part.

¹ The FTA shall serve each per­son en­titled to ap­peal with the fi­nal de­cree stat­ing why ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance is be­ing provided and spe­cify­ing the ex­tent of the in­form­a­tion to be trans­mit­ted.

² In­form­a­tion that is likely to be im­ma­ter­i­al may not be trans­mit­ted. The FTA shall re­move or re­dact such in­form­a­tion.

³ If a per­son en­titled to ap­peal is res­id­ent abroad, the FTA shall no­ti­fy them of the fi­nal de­cree by send­ing it to the per­son au­thor­ised to ac­cept ser­vice, or dir­ectly if it is per­mit­ted to serve doc­u­ments in the state con­cerned by post. It shall oth­er­wise give no­tice of the de­cree by pub­lic­a­tion in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette.³⁶

⁴ At the same time, the FTA shall in­form the can­ton­al tax ad­min­is­tra­tions con­cerned of the is­sue and con­tent of the fi­nal de­cree.

¹ Re­quests for ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance are ex­ecuted free of charge.

² The FTA may charge the per­son con­cerned or the in­form­a­tion hold­er for some or all of the costs it in­curs in con­nec­tion with the ex­change of in­form­a­tion if:

a.

the costs are ex­traordin­ar­ily high; and

b.

the per­son con­cerned or the in­form­a­tion hold­er con­trib­uted sub­stan­tially to the costs gen­er­ated through their in­ap­pro­pri­ate be­ha­viour.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify the cir­cum­stances rel­ev­ant to para­graph 2 and rule on the de­tails.

Ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance may be provided in con­nec­tion with de­ceased per­sons. Their leg­al suc­cessors are gran­ted party status.

¹ Any or­der pre­ced­ing the fi­nal de­cree, in­clud­ing an or­der con­cern­ing com­puls­ory meas­ures, may be en­forced im­me­di­ately and may be con­tested only to­geth­er with the fi­nal de­cree.

² The per­son con­cerned and oth­er per­sons as spe­cified in Art­icle 48 of the APA³⁸ are en­titled to ap­peal.

³ The ap­peal has sus­pens­ive ef­fect. Art­icle 55 para­graphs 2 to 4 of the APA ap­ply.

⁴ In prin­ciple, only one ex­change of writ­ten sub­mis­sions takes place.

⁵ For all oth­er mat­ters, the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions on fed­er­al justice ap­ply.

¹ When the fi­nal de­cree or ap­peal de­cision has be­come fully en­force­able, the FTA shall trans­mit the in­form­a­tion to be ex­changed to the re­quest­ing au­thor­ity.

² The FTA shall no­ti­fy the re­quest­ing au­thor­ity of the re­stric­tions on the us­ab­il­ity of the trans­mit­ted in­form­a­tion and of the con­fid­en­ti­al­ity ob­lig­a­tions un­der the ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance pro­vi­sions of the ap­plic­able agree­ment.

³ If the agree­ment stip­u­lates that the in­form­a­tion ob­tained through ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance may also be used for pur­poses oth­er than tax mat­ters or may be for­war­ded to a third state if the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the re­ques­ted state con­sents to such use or for­ward­ing, the FTA shall give its con­sent after ex­amin­ing the situ­ation.³⁹ If the in­form­a­tion ob­tained is to be for­war­ded to crim­in­al au­thor­it­ies, the FTA shall give its con­sent in con­sulta­tion with the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice.

¹ Only the in­form­a­tion trans­mit­ted to the re­quest­ing au­thor­ity may be used for the pur­pose of en­for­cing Swiss tax law.

² Bank in­form­a­tion may be fur­ther used only if such in­form­a­tion could have been ob­tained un­der Swiss law.

³ If the in­form­a­tion was ob­tained on the basis of a per­son's duty to co­oper­ate, it may be used in crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings against that per­son only if the per­son con­sents to this or if such in­form­a­tion could also have been ob­tained without his co­oper­a­tion.

¹ Ex­cep­tion­ally, the FTA shall no­ti­fy per­sons en­titled to ap­peal about a re­quest by means of a de­cree after the in­form­a­tion has been trans­mit­ted if the re­quest­ing au­thor­ity demon­strates that the pur­pose of the ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance and the suc­cess of its in­vest­ig­a­tion would be com­prom­ised by pri­or no­ti­fic­a­tion.

²If an ap­peal is filed against the de­cree, only a de­clar­a­tion of un­law­ful­ness can be re­ques­ted.

³The FTA shall in­form the in­form­a­tion hold­ers and au­thor­it­ies who were made aware of the re­quest about the de­ferred no­ti­fic­a­tion. These per­sons and au­thor­it­ies may not in­form per­sons en­titled to ap­peal about the re­quest un­til after their de­ferred no­ti­fic­a­tion.

⁴ and ⁵ …⁴²

¹ The in­ter­ested tax au­thor­it­ies shall ad­dress their re­quest for in­ter­na­tion­al ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance to the FTA.

² The FTA shall ex­am­ine the re­quest and de­cide wheth­er the re­quire­ments un­der the ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance pro­vi­sions in the ap­plic­able agree­ment are met. If the re­quire­ments are not met, the FTA shall no­ti­fy the re­quest­ing au­thor­ity of this in writ­ing, and give it the op­por­tun­ity to sup­ple­ment its re­quest in writ­ing.

³ The FTA shall trans­mit the re­quest to the com­pet­ent for­eign au­thor­ity and mon­it­or the ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance pro­ced­ure un­til its con­clu­sion.

⁴ De­cisions on Swiss re­quests for in­ter­na­tion­al ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance may not be chal­lenged by way of ap­peal.

⁵ The FTA shall trans­mit the in­form­a­tion re­ceived from abroad to the in­ter­ested tax au­thor­it­ies and at the same time no­ti­fy them of the re­stric­tions on the use of the trans­mit­ted in­form­a­tion and of the con­fid­en­ti­al­ity ob­lig­a­tion un­der the ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance pro­vi­sions of the ap­plic­able agree­ment.

^5bis The FTA shall ex­am­ine wheth­er the in­form­a­tion re­ceived from abroad is of in­terest to oth­er Swiss au­thor­it­ies, and shall for­ward the in­form­a­tion to these au­thor­it­ies provided this is per­mit­ted un­der the ap­plic­able con­ven­tion and provided for by Swiss law. If re­quired, it shall ob­tain the con­sent of the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in the re­ques­ted state.⁴⁴

⁶ Ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance con­cern­ing bank in­form­a­tion may be re­ques­ted only if such in­form­a­tion could be ob­tained un­der Swiss law.

⁷ Para­graph 6 does not ap­ply to states from which Switzer­land may re­ceive in­form­a­tion without pri­or re­quest.⁴⁵

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails of ob­lig­a­tions re­lated to the spon­tan­eous ex­change of in­form­a­tion. In do­ing so, it shall take ac­count of in­ter­na­tion­al stand­ards and the prac­tices of oth­er states.

² The FTA and the can­ton­al tax ad­min­is­tra­tions shall take the meas­ures re­quired to identi­fy cases in which in­form­a­tion should be ex­changed spon­tan­eously.

³ The can­ton­al tax ad­min­is­tra­tions shall provide the FTA with the in­form­a­tion in­ten­ded for trans­mis­sion to the com­pet­ent for­eign au­thor­it­ies vol­un­tar­ily and in good time.

⁴ The FTA shall ex­am­ine this in­form­a­tion and de­cide which in­form­a­tion is to be trans­mit­ted.

⁵ The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Fin­ance (FDF) may is­sue dir­ect­ives; in par­tic­u­lar it may re­quire the can­ton­al tax ad­min­is­tra­tions to use spe­cif­ic forms and that cer­tain forms are only to be sub­mit­ted in elec­tron­ic form.

¹ The FTA shall no­ti­fy the per­son con­cerned and oth­er per­sons whom they must as­sume based on the files to be en­titled to ap­peal un­der Art­icle 48 APA⁴⁷ of the planned spon­tan­eous ex­change of in­form­a­tion.

² By way of ex­cep­tion, they shall no­ti­fy these per­sons of the spon­tan­eous ex­change of in­form­a­tion after it has been car­ried out if the pur­pose of the ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance and the suc­cess of an in­vest­ig­a­tion would oth­er­wise be com­prom­ised. Art­icle 21a para­graphs 2 and 3 also ap­plies by ana­logy.

³ If it is not pos­sible to con­tact a per­son en­titled to ap­peal, the FTA shall no­ti­fy the per­son of the planned trans­mis­sion of in­form­a­tion by pub­lic­a­tion in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette. It shall re­quest the per­son con­cerned to des­ig­nate a per­son au­thor­ised to ac­cept ser­vice. It shall spe­cify a dead­line for do­ing so.

Art­icle 15 ap­plies by ana­logy to the right to par­ti­cip­ate and in­spect files.

Art­icles 16, 17, 19 and 20 ap­ply by ana­logy to the pro­ced­ure.

¹ The FTA shall for­ward in­form­a­tion that oth­er states have spon­tan­eously trans­mit­ted to it to the tax au­thor­it­ies in­ter­ested in or­der to ap­ply and en­force Swiss tax law. It shall no­ti­fy them of the re­stric­tions on the use of the trans­mit­ted in­form­a­tion and of the con­fid­en­ti­al­ity ob­lig­a­tions un­der the ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance pro­vi­sions of the ap­plic­able agree­ment.

² It shall for­ward the in­form­a­tion spon­tan­eously trans­mit­ted by an­oth­er state to oth­er Swiss au­thor­it­ies to which the in­form­a­tion is of in­terest provided this is per­mit­ted un­der the ap­plic­able con­ven­tion and provided for by Swiss law. If re­quired, it shall ob­tain the con­sent of the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in the re­ques­ted state.

In or­der to ful­fil its du­ties, the FTA may pro­cess per­son­al data in ac­cord­ance with the ap­plic­able con­ven­tion and this Act, in­clud­ing per­son­al data on ad­min­is­trat­ive and crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings and sanc­tions in tax mat­ters.

¹ The FTA shall op­er­ate an in­form­a­tion sys­tem for pro­cessing per­son­al data, in­clud­ing per­son­al data on ad­min­is­trat­ive and crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings and sanc­tions in tax mat­ters, that it has re­ceived based on the ap­plic­able con­ven­tion and this Act.

² The data may only be pro­cessed by em­ploy­ees of the FTA or by spe­cial­ists su­per­vised by the FTA.

³ The in­form­a­tion sys­tem as­sists the FTA in ful­filling its du­ties un­der the ap­plic­able con­ven­tion and this Act. It may be used in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

to re­ceive and for­ward in­form­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with the ap­plic­able con­ven­tion and Swiss law;

b.

to pro­cess leg­al pro­ceed­ings in con­nec­tion with the ap­plic­able con­ven­tion and this Act;

c.

to im­pose and en­force ad­min­is­trat­ive and crim­in­al sanc­tions;

d.

to pro­cess re­quests for mu­tu­al ad­min­is­trat­ive and leg­al as­sist­ance;

e.

to com­bat the com­mis­sion of tax of­fences;

f.

to com­pile stat­ist­ics.

^3bis The FTA may grant the Swiss tax au­thor­it­ies to which they for­ward in­form­a­tion spon­tan­eously trans­mit­ted from abroad on­line ac­cess to the data in the in­form­a­tion sys­tem that these au­thor­it­ies re­quire to ful­fil their stat­utory du­ties.⁴⁹

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails, in par­tic­u­lar on:

a.

the or­gan­isa­tion and man­age­ment of the in­form­a­tion sys­tem;

b.

the cat­egor­ies of per­son­al data pro­cessed;

c.

the cata­logue of data on ad­min­is­trat­ive and crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings and sanc­tions;

d.

the rights of ac­cess and to pro­cess data;

e.

the length of re­ten­tion peri­ods, archiv­ing and the de­struc­tion of data.

¹ Any per­son en­trus­ted with or in­volved in the im­ple­ment­a­tion of an ap­plic­able con­ven­tion and this Act must pre­serve con­fid­en­ti­al­ity in re­la­tion to oth­er au­thor­it­ies and private in­di­vidu­als with re­gard to in­form­a­tion ac­quired in the ex­er­cise of their activ­it­ies.

² No duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity ap­plies:

a.

to the trans­mis­sion of in­form­a­tion and to no­tices un­der the ap­plic­able con­ven­tion and this Act;

b.

in re­la­tion to ju­di­cial and ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­it­ies which the FDF has au­thor­ised in in­di­vidu­al cases to ob­tain of­fi­cial in­form­a­tion from the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­ing this Act;

c.

if the ap­plic­able con­ven­tion per­mits the duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity to be waived and a stat­utory basis ex­ists in Swiss law for such a waiver.

¹ The FTA shall pub­lish the stat­ist­ics re­quired for the peer re­views car­ried out by the Glob­al For­um on Trans­par­ency and Ex­change of In­form­a­tion for Tax Pur­poses.

² There is no right of ac­cess to in­form­a­tion bey­ond that pub­lished in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1.

If a leg­al en­tity that is based abroad is in fact man­aged in Switzer­land, it must keep a re­gister of its pro­pri­et­ors at its ac­tu­al place of man­age­ment. The re­gister must re­cord the first name and sur­name or com­pany name and the ad­dress of these per­sons.

If the per­son con­cerned or the in­form­a­tion hold­er wil­fully fails to com­ply with an en­force­able rul­ing to pro­duce in­form­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 9 or 10 is­sued by the FTA and re­fer­ring to the pen­al­ties un­der this pro­vi­sion, they shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 10,000 francs.

Any per­son who wil­fully or neg­li­gently vi­ol­ates the ban on provid­ing in­form­a­tion un­der Art­icle 21a para­graph 3 shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 10,000 francs.

¹ The pro­sec­u­tion and ad­ju­dic­a­tion of of­fences un­der this Act are gov­erned by the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974⁵² on the Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law.

² The pro­sec­ut­ing and ad­ju­dic­at­ing au­thor­ity is the FTA.

Amend­ments to ex­ist­ing le­gis­la­tion are set out in the An­nex.

Im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions that are based on the Fed­er­al De­cree of 22 June 1951⁵⁴ on the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of In­ter­gov­ern­ment­al Fed­er­al Con­ven­tions on the Avoid­ance of Double Tax­a­tion con­tin­ue to ap­ply for ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance re­quests that have already been sub­mit­ted when this Act comes in­to force.

¹ Art­icle 6 para­graph 2bis and Art­icle 14a ap­ply to group re­quests sub­mit­ted after 1 Feb­ru­ary 2013.

² Art­icle 14 para­graphs 1 and 2, Art­icle 15 para­graph 2 and Art­icle 21a of this Act as amended on 21 March 2014 also ap­ply to ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance re­quests already sub­mit­ted by the time of entry in­to force of the amend­ment of 21 March 2014

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil will de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Feb­ru­ary 2013⁵⁶