Administrative Assistance In Tax Matters – Group Requests

Background

Recently, the Netherlands issued an administrative assistance request in the form of a so-called "group request" to the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (SFTA). In their group request, they asked the SFTA to provide them with data of (former) UBS clients who were domiciled in the Netherlands whose account balance had been over EUR 1'500 in the period between February 2013 and December 2014. The request was based on a letter by UBS allegedly sent to its Dutch domiciled clients that had come into the possession of the Dutch tax authorities. In that letter the bank allegedly informed these clients to provide to it evidence about their tax compliance or close their accounts.