Swiss tax authorities decided non to appeal UBS in French probe

The Swiss federal tax administration (FTA) decided not to appeal against a court decision to let UBS inspect files and receive information in a tax investigation by French tax authorities, FTA said on Monday.
Swiss law generally requires banks to automatically hand over client information without a right to be involved in such cases.

The Swiss federal administrative court (FAC) in October decided to grant UBS "party status", allowing it to access the files and be served with all final decisions by Switzerland's tax administration following a request from French tax authorities to transmit clients' tax data in May. The court said at least 10,000 accounts were involved, as Associated Press reported.

"The Federal Tax Administration recognizes that UBS could be especially impacted by the mutual assistance procedure due to the ongoing proceedings," FTA said in a statement on Monday.

UBS welcomed the Octover 25 court ruling, but must still hand over information for the investigation. The bank didn't comment the decision.