France extracts names of 3,000 French tax evaders from Switzerland

Close to Switzerland signing an agreement with France last week to reveal details of French tax evaders holding Swiss bank accounts, France has managed to obtain 3,000 names of suspected French tax evaders from the Swiss government for the first time.

French budget minister Eric Woerth was quoted by the Sunday paper Le Journal du Dimanche as saying, "It is the first time we have been able to get this type of information that is so precise with the names, account numbers and amounts deposited."

Just last Thursday, Switzerland signed an agreement with France to share information on French tax evaders upon the request by French tax inspectors starting January 2010. (See: After the US, now France breaches Swiss banking secrecy)

Following the US strategy of not revealing the names on the list, France has asked all tax evaders to come clean by 31 December, as the uncertainty of whether their names are actually on the list is expected to make more people come forward with voluntary disclosures.

The French tax authorities believe that the 3,000 suspected French tax evaders hold assets worth €3 billion in Swiss banks.

"The French government had decided to speed up things. The battle against tax havens is an essential plank of our efforts at making capitalism more moral, in which the French president is totally engaged," Woerth added.