The Swiss Federal Supreme Court has ruled that even if persons who are ultimate beneficiaries have not received any money from secret offshore trusts and numbered bank accounts, the Swiss authorities can still go ahead with sharing such confidential information with India - a stand that has dashed hopes of many resident Indians who were banking on the court to stall, or at least delay, the flow of data to the income-tax department here.
Counsels hired by rich Indians have been arguing before the Swiss courts that such personal financial information has no relevance to the Indian tax office because the latter cannot tax the beneficiaries in the absence of any distribution of funds from foreign trusts. The top court, however, has laid down in multiple rulings over the last two weeks that it would not sit in judgement on why Indian authorities have sought information and whether they can claim tax on the back of such data. According to the supreme court, Switzerland will share information if India seeks it without judging the data's ultimate relevance and end use.
