LDF and Swiss-UK Tax Agreement
ish anonymous trusts. She demands a foundation register for countries with British law like the Chan-
nel Islands, Cayman Islands, Virgin Islands or Gibraltar.'?
1.6 Potential Solutions for Liechtenstein and Switzerland
Despite similar preconditions, the approaches applied by Liechtenstein and Switzerland to handle the
pressure from abroad are markedly different. First, the states negotiated new double tax treaties ac-
cording to the OECD standard, which includes an exchange of tax information on request under arti-
22104
cle 26.'® Automatic exchange of tax information or “fishing expeditions”"* are not elements of the
standard.!®
Second, agreements to regularise past tax issues were negotiated. However, this approach cannot be
enforced unilaterally. Thus, Liechtenstein and Switzerland are dependent on the willingness of other
states to cooperate. The UK was, after Austria, the only country willing to accept the method pro-
posed by Liechtenstein and Switzerland."* The LDF focuses on a full disclosure at lowest cost for
clients. Switzerland tried another approach to become a tax compliant financial centre." The Swiss
government expects to reduce pressure and to handle untaxed assets through tax cooperation agree-
ments with, inter alia, the United Kingdom. "* The Swiss solution focuses on maintaining the anonym-
ity of clients. Therefore, the Swiss-UK tax agreement regulates the historical tax liabilities of UK in-
dividuals with bankable assets in Switzerland anonymously with a one-off deduction and future tax
liabilities with a withholding tax."
2 Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility
2.1 Current State of Research
Although the LDF has been in force since 2009, scientific research is still lacking. The reason is that
the LDF is a unique agreement and its relevance is limited outside Liechtenstein and the United King-
dom. Nevertheless, several articles were published in the STEP Journal (Society of Trust and Estate
192 El-Sharif, 2013.
15 Weidermann, 2010, p. 724.
1° Non-specific search for tax information
195 Moritz, 2009, p. 223.
10 Patkös & Gräfe, 2012, p. 34.
7 Gotzenberger, 2010, p. 2544.
1% HMRC, 2012 (2).
199 Agreement between the Swiss Confederation and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
on cooperation in the area of taxation [Swiss-UK Tax Agreement], 2011, Art. 41, para. 1.
23