Progetto

WHEREAS the categories of Reporting Financial Institutions and Reportable Accounts covered by the Agreement as amended by this Amending Protocol are designed to limit the opportunities for taxpayers to avoid being reported by shifting assets to Financial Institutions or investing in financial products that are outside the scope of the Agreement as amended by this Amending Protocol.

However, certain Financial Institutions and accounts that present a low risk of being used to evade tax should be excluded from the scope. Thresholds should not be generally included as they could easily be circumvented by splitting accounts into different Financial Institutions. The financial information which is required to be reported and exchanged should concern not only all relevant income (interests, dividends and similar types of income) but also account balances and sale

proceeds from Financial Assets, in order to address situations where a taxpayer seeks to hide capital that in itself represents income or assets with regard to which tax has been evaded. Therefore, the processing of information under the Agreement as amended by this Amending Protocol is necessary for and proportionate to the purpose of enabling Member States' and Switzerland's tax

administrations to correctly and unequivocally identify the taxpayers concerned, to administer and enforce their tax laws in cross-border situations, to assess the likelihood of tax evasion being perpetrated and to avoid unnecessary further investigations,

HAVE AGREED AS FOLLOWS:

AMP/EU/CH/en 4