Credit Suisse fined over tax evasion charges

Monday, 24 November 2014
A US court has sentenced Credit Suisse for helping American clients evade tax over a period of decades through 2009, and ordered it to pay the US authorities USD2.6 billion in penalties and compensation for lost tax.

The penalty consists of a USD1.8 billion billion payment in fines and restitution, plus USD100 million to the Federal Reserve and USD715 million to the New York State Finance Department.

On 19 May, Credit Suisse pled guilty to ‘conspiracy to aid and assist U.S. taxpayers in filing false income tax returns and other documents with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)’. As part of the plea agreement, the bank agreed to make a complete disclosure of its cross-border activities. This will entail cooperating in treaty requests for account information and providing detailed information about other banks that transferred or accepted funds into secret accounts when other accounts were closed.

US tax enforcement expert Jack Townsend described the plea bargain as ‘a very good deal for Credit Suisse’.

Sources

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