[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 10011]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           SWISS TAX PROTOCOL

  Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, I am pleased to join Senator Levin today 
in calling on the Senate to take up and pass by unanimous consent the 
Swiss tax protocol and other tax treaties pending before the Senate. 
The importance of these treaties cannot be overstated. They would aid 
U.S. companies by allowing for certainty in tax treatment when those 
companies engage in international commerce and trade by preventing 
double taxation and ensuring they have the backing of the Treasury 
Department in the case of conflicts with foreign tax authorities. 
Furthermore, they would allow our government to be on stronger footing 
in holding tax cheats accountable, an issue Senator Levin and I are 
particularly familiar with given our recent investigation, as chairman 
and ranking member on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, 
into offshore tax schemes carried out by Credit Suisse. On the heels of 
that investigation, Credit Suisse recently paid a $2.6 billion fine and 
pled guilty to criminal charges, admitting to facilitating tax evasion 
for their U.S. clients.
  Taking advantage of Switzerland's opaque banking practices, Credit 
Suisse became a safe haven for tax evasion. The clients seeking these 
services and the bank itself believed that they were, and would remain, 
outside the reach of U.S. tax authorities. The recent guilty plea 
proves that this belief was at least partly mistaken. This criminal 
penalty was a welcome development, but it was also lacking in several 
ways, including that, as part of the agreement, the U.S. government did 
not require the bank to turn over the names of the U.S. clients holding 
secret bank accounts with Credit Suisse. With more than 20,000 
unidentified Americans having held accounts at Credit Suisse in 
Switzerland during the relevant period (most of whom never disclosed 
their accounts as required by U.S. law) this agreement provided no 
direct accountability for those taxes owed.
  We need to ensure this does not happen again. The Swiss tax protocol 
we are discussing today would make it easier to get those names and 
account information. Working under the assumption that the United 
States would be unable to pierce the veil of Swiss bank secrecy, U.S. 
persons have secreted their money away in countries such as Switzerland 
for far too long. Passing this treaty is necessary to prove this 
assumption wrong and to deter future attempts at tax evasion. It will 
send a strong message to those who would consider violating U.S. tax 
laws that we enforce our laws, fairly and uniformly, and we have the 
tools at our disposal to do so.
  At the Credit Suisse hearing, the bank's CEO, Brady Dougan, said, 
``Credit Suisse is ready, at this moment, to provide the additional 
information about Swiss accounts requested by U.S. authorities but has 
been unable to do so because the U.S. Senate has not yet ratified the 
protocol.'' Let's call his bluff and remove anything that may stand in 
the way of allowing the bank to provide U.S. authorities with 
information about those accounts.
  These routine and important tax treaties were reported out favorably 
by the Foreign Relations Committee on April 1. For all of these 
reasons, I urge the Senate to consider and pass these treaties.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.

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