Switzerland provides data of 3,000 tax evaders to France to avoid “grey list”

The French budget minister Eric Woerth said in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that Paris had received the names of 3,000 French citizens thought to escape their own country's fiscal regulations by stashing money over the border. The move comes days after Paris and Berne signed an agreement aimed at sharing more information on suspected tax evaders. Woerth also added that the value of the assets in the accounts was estimated at about ¤3bn (£2.6bn).

The world's largest offshore banking centre Switzerland is attempting to bring itself back in from the cold after its idiosyncratic financial practices were sharply rebuked at the London G20 summit of leaders in April. Switzerland was put on a "grey list" of countries considered by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to be failing to co-operate "substantially" on sharing information. Since then, it has reluctantly promised to help other countries crack down on tax evasion while at the same time seeking to reassure its banks' customers that its protective layer of secrecy will remain.

In addition, the Swiss finance ministry said that the government has now signed taxation agreements in line with OECD recommendations with France, Denmark and Luxembourg, which was removed from the "grey list" in July. It is also understood to have initialed, but not yet signed, similar deals with a number of other countries, including Britain. Besides, this month the Swiss government agreed to provide US tax inspectors with the details of 4,450 accounts with the country's biggest bank, UBS.

Furthermore, Eric Woerth urged those who fear they are on the list of names given to the French authorities to give themselves up and pay the extra taxes and penalties before the end of the year. Otherwise, he said, the authorities would take legal action to hunt down suspected offenders. News of the fresh assault on tax evasion came just days after Sarkozy announced a series of regulations on traders' bonuses and urged the rest of the G20 nations, due to meet in Pittsburgh on 24 September, to follow suit. 

France is keen to pull its weight in the fight against tax havens, which president Nicolas Sarkozy has championed as a crucial part of a drive to "moralise" capitalism in the wake of the global crisis.