The Minister of Finances Yannis Stournaras is scheduled to meet his Swiss counterpart (and current Ecofin president) Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf at noon today in Athens, in order to discuss the taxation of Greek accounts in Swiss banks. Today’s meeting was scheduled after the Greek deputy Finance Minister Giorgos Mavraganis met with his Swiss counterpart Jacques De Watteville in Bern last week.
In the Sunday edition of To Vima the assistant professor of economics at LSE Gabriel Zucman determined that the Greek accounts in the Swiss banks are worth about 60 billion euros and estimated that the funds are concealed behind offshores, trusts and various institutions. This is nearly double the 32 billion euro estimate of the general secretary of the federation of private banks.
Based on the deal being discussed between the two countries, the undeclared accounts belonging to Greeks will be taxed with a 30% rate, if the account beneficiary refuses to give his details to the Greek Finance Ministry and wishes to remain “anonymous”. The account holder can avoid this tax if he or she agrees to disclose residence details.
If the two Ministries can come to an agreement, the Greek government hopes to collect about 4 to 6 billion euros in taxes from the Swiss bank accounts belonging to Greek citizens.
