U.S. lawmakers suffered a minor setback Wednesday in their ongoing effort to close offshore tax havens. Mark Branson, an executive at the powerful Swiss bank UBS, apologized to a Senate subcommittee for helping Americans dodge taxes but he refused to disclose the names of the estimated remaining 33,000 U.S. clients accused of evading taxes with the help of UBS. Branson argued that he could not cooperate because full disclosure would violate Swiss criminal law, and told lawmakers, “the IRS is attempting to resolve this diplomatic dispute in a courtroom, which is neither productive, nor proper.” (Associated Press)
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=145260