The Swiss National Council is the lower house of Parliament. They are debating compliance with internationl law on money laundering.
The Swiss Government (Bundesrat) had forwarded the bill to modify the Swiss money laundering act to Federal Council, implementing the revised Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations.
Lawmakers increased the tax threshold for a case of tax evasion to be deemed to be a serious tax offence, from CHF200,000 (USD229,164) to CHF300,00. Furthermore, they did not agree to limit cash payments to CHF100,000.
Swiss business federation (Economiesuisse) had claimed that the bill had needlessly surpassed the FATF requirements. In its current form, the proposed legislation would burden banks with excessive bureaucracy, and places undue restrictions on businesses, the group said.
Economiesuisse said that as well as raising the qualifying threshold for a major tax offence, lawmakers should add a further criterion – multiple offences, to give financial intermediaries greater certainty when reporting their clients to the tax authority.
Economiesuisse also said that limiting cash payments is both unnecessary and arbitrary. It called on the National Council to improve the bill.
In its current version the bill would fall short of the FATF’s recommendation with the consequence that Switzerland could be blacklisted by the FATF, according to the Swiss finance minister Evelyn Widmer-Schlumpf. Parl_PressRelease_19.6.14 / German
The Senate or upper house approves submission to international standards, but the National Council is steadfast in its rejection of transparency and cash.
Rodrigo Matos