Federal Council wishes to make first renegotiated double taxation agreement subject to optional referendum

Bern, 08.04.2009 - Under current practice, parliament and the Federal Council do not make double taxation agreements subject to optional referendum if these do not contain any significant additional obligations compared to the content of previous agreements. Today the Federal Council confirmed this practice. The first double taxation agreement containing the new provisions on administrative assistance should therefore be subject to an optional referendum. Subsequent double taxation agreements will only be subject to an optional referendum if they contain significant new obligations compared to the initial agreement. The final decision as to whether or not a double taxation agreement will be subject to an optional referendum rests with parliament, as has been the case to date.

Following the withdrawal of the reservation concerning Art. 26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention, the question arises as to whether double taxation agreements containing extended administrative assistance provisions are subject to referendum. Under Art. 141 of the Federal Constitution, a referendum may be sought on international treaties that contain important legislative provisions or whose implementation requires the enactment of federal legislation.

Applying this principle, double taxation agreements have to date been subject to an optional referendum if they contained new, additional obligations for Switzerland. If they were consistent in terms of content with double taxation agreements that had already been concluded, they were not subject to referendum. In all cases, the decision as to whether or not to make a double taxation agreement subject to an optional referendum has always rested with parliament.

Today the Federal Council reaffirmed this practice with regard to the double taxation agreements that are to be renegotiated. This means that the first of the renegotiated agreements will be made subject to an optional referendum. Further double taxation agreements though will not be subject to a referendum unless they contain new obligations in addition to those contained in the previously concluded agreement. The final decision, however, continues to rest with parliament.


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Thomas Sägesser, Deputy Secretary General FDF, tel. 031 322 60 04



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Federal Department of Finance
https://www.efd.admin.ch/efd/en/home.html

Federal Department of Finance
https://www.efd.admin.ch/efd/en/home.html

https://www.admin.ch/content/gov/en/start/documentation/media-releases.msg-id-26353.html