Suisse Credit

To whom it may concern,

Credit Suisse Bank recently reported that it will either disclose or close nearly three billion francs in accounts from United States citizens. While some accounts will move ahead with full disclosure and some taxes will be collected, the remaining accounts will simply cash out. Continuing with this strategy would require that the US government force every nation in the world to have its private and public banks disclose the foreign accounts of all its citizens. This strategy seems faulty in that it will not maximize the collection of delinquent taxes, nor deter real tax evasion. It may even set off a round of financial protectionism that could devastate an already battered financial sector. If we close offshore accounts in Switzerland they will simply move to the next unregulated market. How much money does the federal government really believe that it can retrieve from these offshore accounts.

GUNNAR HAND, AICP