The DTA, which offers administrative assistance in tax matters in accordance with article 26 of the model tax convention of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, is the eighteenth such revised DTA the Alpine state has initialled.

The first ten dispatches of these DTAs have already been approved by the Swiss Federal Council, and have been submitted to the Swiss parliament for approval.

So far, the Federal Council has adopted dispatches on DTAs with Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, Finland, Qatar, the US, Denmark, France, Mexico and the UK.

As these DTAs are seen as a watering down of Swiss banking secrecy, they have been subject to much criticism. They may therefore become subject to a popular referendum in accordance with Swiss direct democracy laws.

Throughout last year, Switzerland has signed several DTAs and was removed from the OECD’s “grey list” of states deemed to be uncooperative in matters of taxation.