Australia and Switzerland enter into tax information exchange

Switzerland and Australia have entered into an unprecedented agreement that will see the two countries automatically exchange tax information. The move is intended to prevent tax evasion through income earned and held in offshore bank accounts.

Tax avoidance has been increasingly prominent on the international agenda recently, and Switzerland is striving to shake its reputation as a haven for tax dodgers and criminal organisation. Swiss authorities have even gone so far as to criticise the James Bond film franchise for the unsavoury image it has cast on the alpine nation.

Authorities from both countries have indicated that they expect the information exchange to be in full swing by 2018. While this is the first time that Switzerland has entered into such an agreement, negotiations for similar arrangements are underway with a number of OECD countries.