SWITZERLAND: “GO AHEAD” TO ACCEPT FINAL BEPS REPORTS

The Swiss Federal Council has given the Swiss delegation to the OECD, the “go ahead” to accept the final BEPS reports— expected to be released possibly as early as the end of September 2015. This action indicates that Switzerland could implement and apply the new standards in the near future, but the timing remains uncertain.

If Switzerland implements the new BEPS-related standards, this would require acceptance of several multilateral competent authority agreements including the exchange of country-by-country (CbC) reports as well as the integration of the standards into newly negotiated double tax treaties. It is expected that the rules relating to CbC reports could apply at least one year later, thereby affording companies and competent authorities the time to implement a proper reporting mechanism.

Read a September 2015 blog posting by the KPMG member firm in Switzerland: BEPS: it is getting serious