L’extension du système de lutte contre le blanchiment d’argent aux infractions fiscales : Much Ado About (Almost) Nothing

On December 14, 2014, the Swiss Federal Parliament enacted a revision of the Swiss money laundering legislation in order to comply with the Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force, as revised in February 2012. One of the issues addressed by the Act is the definition of new predicate offences relating to direct and indirect taxes. The discussion of this issue was controversial from the beginning, in particular the question of the creation of a predicate offence relating to direct taxes. The government draft proposed an offence limited to tax fraud – as opposed to mere tax evasion – relating to income and revenue taxes only and yielding a tax advantage of over CHF 200 000. Even this very narrow definition in international comparison was hotly debated. It was accepted in the end, but with a higher threshold value of CHF 300 000. It is, however, far from certain that the minimal scope of this new provision will serve the interests of the financial intermediaries who advocated…