Once more self-disclosures
Silvia Hunziker
Last year, the tax office of the Canton of Zurich received 7250 voluntary declarations, thus again significantly exceeding the record figure of the previous year (6200). This is due to the Automatic Information Exchange (AIA) of bank data, which came into force between numerous countries at the beginning of 2017. Since the possibility of voluntary reports without penalty (2010), the cantonal tax office had previously received 850 to 2100 such reports per year.
How much tax revenue the newly received 7250 cases will generate will only become apparent in the coming years once the tax office has dealt with these cases. Mostly domestic and foreign bank deposits and securities accounts, as well as a large number of foreign properties, were subsequently declared. In many cases, the amounts involved are comparatively small, and failure to declare them is partly due to ignorance or negligence. In view of the flood of self-declarations, it is obvious that the number of cases still to be processed has also risen, from 3750 to 6050. The tax authorities expect the number of self-declarations to fall again this year after the big AIA wave of 2017 and 2018.
CHF 98 million for canton and municipalities
The high number of minor cases is reflected in the number of the approximately 5,000 voluntary declarations which the tax office dealt with last year. This is more than in the previous year (3800) and significantly more than in previous years (700 to 1900). In 23 cases, this was already the second voluntary disclosure by the same taxpayer, which meant that impunity was no longer possible, and a fine had to be cancelled in addition.
The 5000 voluntary declarations completed in 2018 brought in a total of around CHF 98 million (previous year: CHF 83 million) in after-tax revenues for the canton and the municipalities and around CHF 24 million (CHF 21 million) in after-tax revenues for the Confederation. This income is based on subsequently declared income of 260 million francs (229) and on sustainably uncovered assets of 1483 million francs (1327), which will continue to appear in future tax returns if they continue to exist.
Very many small cases - falling average
yield The large number of small cases has led to a further fall in the average yield for the canton and the municipalities in 2018 - from CHF 22,000 to CHF 19,500, which is less than a third of what it was in the early years of voluntary declarations without penalty (2010 and 2013: CHF 60,000).
The fact that the average yield has not decreased even further is due to the fact that even in the self-disclosures completed in 2018, there were several dozen cases in which taxpayers had to pay very high supplementary taxes, of which in more than a dozen cases over one million Swiss francs. In total, the after-taxes levied in 2018 account for around 0.7 per cent of the canton's total state tax revenues.
347,000 AIA reports concern the canton of Zurich
In December 2018, the tax office received the AIA data reported from abroad concerning the Canton of Zurich from the federal government for the first time: It concerns 347'000 reports. The tax office will initially examine the most important reports and use this analysis to draw conclusions for further action. It is not yet possible to make any statements about the content of the data. However, it cannot be ruled out that this will result in more after-tax and fine proceedings.
In the Canton of Zurich, self-denunciations in connection with the AIA are treated with impunity if they are received before the tax office responsible for the assessment establishes in its examination that not everything has been properly declared.
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