The Federal Department of Finance announced today that Switzerland and the UK have signed the Protocol to amend the double taxation agreement (DTA) in the area of taxes on income.. The Protocol of Amendment, signed in London, also contains a provision on the exchange of information in accordance with the OECD standard.

Since March 2009, the UK is the sixth country with which Switzerland has signed a DTA containing the extended administrative assistance clause in accordance with Art. 26 of the OECD Model Convention; other such partners are Denmark, Luxembourg, France, Norway and Austria.

The Federal Department of Finance points out that Switzerland has negotiated DTAs the extended administrative assistance clause with fourteen countries. Along with the agreements already signed, there are agreements with Mexico, the USA, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland, Qatar and Singapore. These DTAs have been initialled but not yet signed. The Federal Council has also given the go-ahead for the DTA with Mexico to be signed. The other initialled DTAs are to be submitted to the Federal Council shortly for the necessary approval.

Also reported today was that the negotiations with the UK was used to insert an arbitration clause in the DTA in accordance with the OECD Model Convention.