UBS Gets FTA's Disclosure Order On French Request In Tax Matters - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Swiss financial services giant UBS AG (UBS) Tuesday said it has received a disclosure order from the Swiss Federal Tax Administration or FTA to transfer information based on a French request for international administrative assistance in tax matters.

UBS said the request concerns a number of its account numbers pertaining to current and former French domiciled clients and is based on data from 2006 and 2008. Since then, the client base underlying the data has changed significantly and a large number of the accounts affected by the French request are closed.

The French tax authorities filed the request for international administrative assistance in tax matters with the FTA based on the Double Taxation Agreement between Switzerland and France. The FTA has accepted the request and directed a disclosure order to UBS.

UBS is required to produce the requested information to the FTA. The bank has expressed its concerns to the FTA that the legal grounds for this request are ambiguous at best.

UBS said it has taken steps to inform affected clients about the administrative assistance proceeding and their procedural rights, including the right to appeal. To ensure legal clarity UBS also plans to take legal steps to have the admissibility of the administrative assistance request evaluated by the Swiss Federal Administrative Court.

The request from the French tax authorities is based on data received from the German authorities. As previously reported, German authorities conducted various investigations on tax matters in recent years.