The Wall Street Journal Quotes Scott Michel: Swiss Bow to Pressure for More Bank Data

Scott D. Michel talks to The Wall Street Journal concerning Switzerland's agreement to a plan which will allow its banks to release information on the holdings of their American clients.  The move is expected to pressure U.S. taxpayers holding secret bank accounts to declare them to the Internal Revenue Service.  For more on the story, please visit The Wall Street Journal's website.

The proposal doesn't loosen protections of specific client information, such as names, account numbers and balances. Retrieval by U.S. authorities would remain cumbersome.

But it would make it easier for the Justice Department and the IRS to see where undeclared U.S. taxpayer assets are concentrated, said Scott Michel, an attorney at Caplin & Drysdale in Washington. Under current rules, such information must pass through the Swiss government in a complicated process.