What does the group request process look like?
Since 2019, the double taxation agreement between Switzerland and the USA has given the US tax authority, IRS, the right to request administrative assistance in the form of group requests. Client information can be requested by the IRS retroactively up to 2014.
If the FTA receives a group request, it forwards it to the Swiss financial institutions involved. These institutions then have 10 days to identify affected persons (so-called non-consenting US accounts or non-participating FIs) and to transmit the required information to the FTA in a specified form. There is little time for compliance officers and their teams to perform this process manually without errors. This process is predestined to be digitised. We would be happy to show you how.