Chile Finance Commission approves bill to lift banking secrecy for tax crimes investigation

There are no secrets from God, the saying goes. And it seems that the Internal Revenue Service (SII) thinks the same: the Finance Commission of the Chilean parliament approved a bill that would allow the SII to raise banking secrecy through a special mechanism to investigate to commit possible tax crimes.

But it is not by chance: the content must be treated confidentially and if the person under investigation is innocent, the records must be destroyed within 30 days, as the Inspector’s messages A gadget that self-destructed.

These bank records self-destruct in 30 days

The SII must declare before the courts that they are pursuing a tax offense and if the court approves, the bank has up to 45 days to deliver the records.

What is banking secrecy?

As Storyteller once told you, banking secrecy is the duty of banks to maintain the confidentiality of their clients’ financial information, especially their bank accounts and transactions.

It is a very common practice in countries with the lowest banking standards; and in most of them this confidentiality can be lifted through a legal process. What the chamber agreed is a way to speed up the process for when you want to investigate tax crimes such as tax evasion or evasion.

It may sound more familiar to you Credit Suisse Bank of Switzerland, known for its shameless banking secrecy, to the point of being shady. It’s not for nothing that James Bond himself is thrown in as a joke The world is not enough (1999): “If you can’t trust a Swiss banker, what in the world has happened?”

Swiss banking secrecy is a matter of national pride and no wonder: its origins date back to the Second World War, when Jews persecuted by the Nazis could be the main – their town hide in the land of Roger Federer.

Although banking secrecy must be older of course: it is a logical practice if you want to offer security to someone who wants to keep their money in a bank. In addition, it is said that some Swiss cantons in the 19th century already offered banking secrecy to some foreign capital, French or English, with which they preferred to pay less taxes. ​​​in their Swiss banks while walking through the Alps.

The news opened the debate: on the one hand there are those who believe that the protection of people’s privacy is a right that must be protected at all costs, and that such a law opens the door for more government agencies to access our data. On the other hand, there are those who believe that many are hiding behind this privacy to commit tax crimes, and that the Internal Revenue Service does not have the “teeth” to follow them.