The Minister of Finances Yanis Varoufakis and the Minister of State Panagiotis Nikoloudis met with a delegation of the Swiss government, which is headed by Deputy Minister for International Financial Affairs Jacques de Watteville. The meeting was called to discuss the exchange of banking information, in relation to tax evasion and other criminal activities.
Mr. Varoufakis noted that the Greek government is prepared to introduce legislation to make it easier for overseas account-holders to voluntarily declare the fund they have outside of Greece. The government plans on taxing “hidden funds” with a 15% rate and allowing the account-holders to keep the funds abroad. Should they decide to bring the funds back to Greece though, the tax rate will be less.
Those however who will not respond to the government’s call to voluntarily reveal what funds they have hidden in overseas (or even domestic) accounts, then they will face an audit.
Following the meeting between the government officials, technical teams from both countries will convene, in order to coordinate the exchange of information.
