Five Reasons Why It’s Not Going To Be Easy
- India needs to have tax/fund information sharing as part of bilateral agreements with tax havens.
- Also needs supporting agreements to repatriate funds or suspected felons. This could of course take decades.
- Tax havens also need to relax their banking secrecy rules.
- India would have to first furnish names of suspected fraudsters and establish illegality of bank account holder's fund source.
- Fraud component in each individual case will need to be proved, which is a lengthy process. Just "fishing" won’t work.
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Swiss Bank FAQs
- Can open an account if above 18, minimum balance varies from 5,00,000 to 1 million Swiss francs.
- Apart from UBS and Credit Suisse, the two largest banks, there are 330 other Swiss banks to chose from.
- An account can be opened via correspondence, but not via the Internet. Customer verification systems are followed.
- Wire transfers and cash deposits are accepted. Sources and origin of funds have to be explained.
- Can open a numbered account, but that only means fewer people know the account-holder's identity.
- Yes, it's true. Swiss banks offer a very low rate of interest if one chooses to keep funds parked there.
- Indians can now legally open an overseas bank account, as long as one declares it to the tax authorities.
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