The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is keeping a close vigil on foreign banks with an aim to prevent outflow of money offshore by wealthy individuals.
Under an amnesty announced in March, over 1500 Australians have declared assets in Switzerland and other locations such as Israel, South Africa, the UK and Hong Kong.
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The amnesty has till date helped recover about $180m in undeclared offshore income, and a further $1bn in assets.
Australian authorities have now signed an information-sharing deal with the Swiss.
"What we’ll see in a couple of years is the Swiss will be providing to Australia details of Australians’ bank accounts in Switzerland. This is really starting to snowball and reinforce the message that there are no more tax havens," said David Allen, ATO assistant commissioner.
Foreign banks are being monitored after a series of high-profile tax avoidance facilitation cases in the US and Europe.
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By GlobalDataSwiss banking giant Credit Suisse was slapped with a fine of $2.6bn in May for helping Americans hide money in secret Swiss bank accounts.
Allen adds that banks operating similar facilitation schemes for Australians cannot be ruled out completely.
