Greece promotes deal with Switzerland to nab tax evaders

Greece's left-wing government promoted a deal with Switzerland in the framework of a wider campaign to nab tax evaders during talks with Swiss officials here on Tuesday.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and Panagiotis Nikoloudis, the minister of state for combating corruption, held a meeting with a Swiss finance ministry delegation headed by Jacques de Watteville, the state secretary for international financial matters.

At the top of the agenda, was forming closer cooperation between the two countries to address tax dodging.

Greece will soon submit a draft bill calling on Greeks with deposits in Swiss banks to voluntarily declare them in order not to face seizure. In exchange for this, the sums of money will be taxed at a reasonable rate, Varoufakis told media after the talks.

According to finance ministry sources, the tax rate will most likely be around 15 to 20 percent.

The bill is expected to be put to vote in May.

"The Greek government will draft a law for the voluntary revelation of bank deposits abroad under the best practices within the EU and in constant collaboration with Swiss authorities. After this bill is ratified and put in force, a political declaration will be signed," Varoufakis said.

Bank accounts with undeclared deposits in Swiss banks will close under the scheme.

In another deal starting from 2018, there will be an automatic exchange of information between Greece and Switzerland on financial transactions.

"It is in your best interest to cooperate with this program, because you will not avoid taxation anyway," Nikoloudis added.

Debt-laden Greece hopes to raise vital funds from this initiative in coming weeks, as the country faces the specter of default and Grexit again this spring.

Negotiations with lenders have hit an impasse since February on the reforms Athens needs to implement in return for further aid. Amidst this, Greek state coffers were running empty.

Greece's new government has made combating tax evasion a top priority for its four-year term in office. Greek officials have focused their efforts on raising revenues under this voluntary declaration plan by depositors in Switzerland, which is one of the most popular tax havens for wealthy Greeks.

More than 2,000 names of Greeks with major deposits in an HSBC bank branch in Switzerland were included in one list leaked to authorities by a former employee in 2010. The so-called Lagarde list was handed to Greek authorities, but despite probes on suspected tax evasion, there has so far been no considerable inflow of money into the state treasury.

Skeptics here noted that previous efforts in recent years to have major tax dodgers pay their share by putting pressure on them in coordination with the Swiss authorities, did not bear fruit. Endit