Greece seeks to tax accounts in Switzerland

Greece on Monday said it was reviving efforts to conclude an accord with Switzerland in order to tax Greek bank account holders there, as central bank data showed a large outflow of deposits abroad. "The Swiss government has been asked to reactivate the process to sign an accord between the two countries on the taxation of deposits and other instruments maintained by Greek citizens in Swiss banks," the finance ministry said. The finance ministry in February said Greeks had legally moved 16 billion euros ($20 billion) abroad in the last two years, of which less than 10 percent went to Switzerland. Struggling to avoid bankruptcy since 2010, Greece has been trying to clamp down on perennial problems of tax evasion and avoidance but with limited successs. Top-selling Ta Nea daily on Monday said the Bank of Greece had information on 403 Greeks who had moved at least 100,000 euros abroad in 2010 whilst claiming to have zero income. Overall, 731 Greeks had moved a billion euros to foreign banks in 2010, the newspaper claimed.