Zurich — Swiss secrecy could be rolled back further under a plan to eliminate a class of company share that can be used to help owners dodge taxes by hiding their identities. The Swiss government, wary of being branded a tax avoidance pariah, said on Wednesday it was launching a public consultation on measures to convert anonymous bearer shares in private firms into registered shares that have owners’ names attached. Long seen as a haven for the wealthy to stash their money, Switzerland has already dismantled banking secrecy by agreeing to send information about customers’ accounts to foreign tax agencies. The new bearer share proposal, recommended by an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) panel, aims to clamp down on tax avoidance by people using shell companies to hold bearer shares. As those shares have no name attached, ownership can be concealed and even transferred with no documentation. There are no estimates for how much tax income is lost this way....
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