The End of Swiss Bank Secrecy
Hello, and welcome to Sherayzen Law Office video blog. My name is Eugene Sherayzen; I’m an international tax attorney and owner of Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd. And today, we are continuing our vlog in Zurich Switzerland and right now we’re walking towards one of the most prestigious, one of the most expensive, and one of the most bank-filled if you will, streets in the world: Bahnhofstrasse.
Bahnhofstrasse is known in the banking world for being the headquarters of some of the largest banks in the world. It is also known for being one of the top places for international assets management and international tax planning.
And now we have reached one of the most exciting and important places in US voluntary disclosure history, UBS Bank. UBS is important because it was precisely the IRS victory over the UBS that opened the door to the IRS intrusion into Switzerland and ultimately took down, completely destroyed, annihilated the concept of bank secrecy in Switzerland with respect to US Taxpayers.
It was also the beginning of a series of highly successful US voluntary disclosure programs. It was precisely the US victory in 2008 over UBS that lead to the creation of the (now discontinued) 2009 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program or OVDP.