With the communication of 23 August 2021, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) informed that as of 1 July 2021, the following data providers and their classification systems will be officially recognised by the FTA for the Swiss Stamp Transfer Tax:
- SIX Financial Information Ltd; Zurich
- Bloomberg Finance L.P.; New York
- Refinitiv SA; Collonge-Bellerive
Thus, securities dealers (as defined in the Stamp Duty Act) like banks in Switzerland now have the possibility to choose between three data providers.
The rules remain unchanged and are as follows:
- The securities dealer can decide once per calendar year whether or not to refer to data from a recognised data provider.
- The chosen method as well as the data provider must be maintained for at least one year.
- When choosing to obtain data from a recognised data provider, the securities dealer must consistently adhere to this Swiss stamp tax classification.
- If a securities dealer has relied on the data of a recognised data provider for the Swiss stamp tax, the FTA will not make any subsequent corrections to the Swiss stamp tax if an incorrect classification is discovered.
Impact:
Securities dealers such as banks in Switzerland now have significantly more flexibility in selecting the most suitable data provider for them.
In practice, especially corporate actions, such as cash mergers, conversions, stock splits, etc., present difficulties in the Swiss stamp tax assessment and result in risks for the banks. It will be interesting to compare the three data suppliers in the provision of data in this area.
Also, banks that for various reasons had not previously obtained the "Swiss stamp tax" module and, as a consequence assumed the risks of an incorrect classification themselves, may now reassess based on the selection of recognised data suppliers.
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