Swiss bank accounts have become synonymous with wildly wealthy business people who are willing to bend the law. Why? Switzerland has some of the laxest tax regulations in the world, as well as some of the most opaque financial secrecy laws on the books. named Switzerland the best tax haven in the world (beating out strong contenders like Bermuda and the Bahamas) due to level of secrecy and scale of banking operations.
In 1934 Switzerland passed a law making it a criminal offense to reveal a client鈥檚 identity and, due to this, today Switzerland is estimated to hold 27 percent of the world鈥檚 offshore wealth, according to Boston Consultancy Group. Bankers have repeatedly dodged US attempts to get names of their American banking clients, despite being blatantly singled out for their methods (which some say include taking a cut of the offshore money for their efforts).
Overall, analystsover $32 trillion of financial assets are hidden in offshore tax havens, which could make up $280 billion in lost income tax revenues.
