“The rate of the federal Capital Gains Tax applies to self-employed crypto traders and businesses for whom the tax is levied on profits from selling or trading crypto. Private investors don’t have to pay the tax for their personal wealth assets.”
It isn’t a violation of Swiss law. A bank is allowed to include a clause which waives your right to banking secrecy in the terms and conditions of their contracts, and a number of Swiss banks do this (most banks include such clauses in the T&Cs for online and/or mobile banking). If you voluntarily enter into this contract, then you accept that. They also have the right to ask you for information about banking relationships. But you have the legal right to say no.
If I were in the OPs place I would senf the bank copies of the statements detailing the outgoing transfers to Kraken, and a copy of my tax declarations/statements which show the returns I’ve earned. I’d add a clarification detailing the sum total of capital and returns, and compare these to the capital I am transferring back to my account.
That would, of course, be offering up a lot of information. But it would be a lot more professional than being treated like a suspected criminal.
You don’t have to pay tax on your capital gains as a private investor, but you certainly do have to declare them to the tax office.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been through almost the same thing (with a different Swiss bank and Coinbase instead of Kraken, but with IB as well), and with relatively large sums. I had to show where and how I bought the assets, with which money, and when I sold where. And I had to show the tax filings where I reported the holdings (which I of course had).
I complied, they were reasonable (and quite competent actually). and I was happy that in the end I got the transactions cleared. You might not like it but that’s the point of banking regulation and AML/KYC laws, and it’s much better to do this now vs. going through the pain in 5-10 years where you might not have the proper documentation anymore. I didn’t find it pleasant but understandable why the bank had to go through this.
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Well no…
They have to comply with law no matter of they are more exposed than others banks.
The main difference will be with the set up organisation on each bank about compliance/legal matter. A bank like UBS have a lot of person working in the compliance/legal department and is probably used to be up to date and more efficient than a smaller bank with less than 10 employees working in the compliance/legal department.
So I’m mot surprised that they instigate more widely about this topics. I would be surprised if they were more lazy about this topics.
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By the way, this excellent article explains why and how KYC/AML implementation details are let to the discretion of the financial institution, hence you could have two different behaviors in two banks of the same country.
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The Swiss banks answer to the FINMA, so they need to show everything has been put in place to avoid money laundering.
Some banks take this more seriously than others. It’s not only with Crypto, all money coming from abroad raises red flags.
I can insure you that even neobanks will ask questions for big amounts. For example, the maximum transfer limit in Neon is 50k per day
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I can confirm that this is also the case also with neobanks. In my case, I had an incoming transfer to Neon of around 100k from IB, only to leave again within the same day back to IB. I had informed Neon ahead of time and everything went smooth. Still, I got a phone call some days later, but I was abroad and didn’t pick it up. Result: account was temporarily frozen until I called them and explained the source of funds (there’s actually a track record of funds leaving my Neon account toward IB). They didn’t ask for any further document though, and the account was unfrozen soon after.
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Is there a report on IBKR that would allow to list the transfers received as well as the sender (with indication of the bank would be ideal but I don’t have too many illusions)? Does anyone use or know if this exists?
I’m wondering because I’ve been using different bank setups in the last few months with which I’ve been transferring money to IBKR. Most of the accounts are now closed and if one day I would like to withdraw my investments from IBKR, I was wondering what kind of documents would be considered valid by the bank that would receive the transfer. Would a simple broker’s report suffice, or do I need the transfer history of all the accounts used?
I don’t think you have to worry much. IBKR isn’t a random crypto platform, especially if your bank is seeing wires towards it, I don’t think I would ask many questions (or any).
I’m bringing this topic up again to ask you a question.
For the background, my current employer has an agreement with UBS that offers me 2 years of free account management and services. I said to myself “why not test the UBS setup for 2 years and close the relationship if it turns out not to suit me”. 2 years free is always good.
The UBS contact person tells me that, in order to open the accounts, I need to bring my employment contract with me. I’m willing to prove my employment relationship with my company in order to take advantage of the agreement with UBS, but isn’t that excessive? Would a certificate from my employer be sufficient? I don’t understand why UBS would need my employment contract.
Any opinions on this?
I had to do the same with BCGE’s and provide my first contract to open my account.
They‘ll see your employment income (coming into the account) anyway - and they’ll ask you what you do for a living, too. You didn’t plan to lie, did you?
Probably, but I’m not working at UBS 
Ask them
My guess is that they want to know if it’s a permanent contract and your income.
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Something that can be easily confirmed by a letter from HR without providing the full copy of the working contract
It should be enough for them, but I will ask them if it will be.
In my view they ask for your contract because it is easy to provide it without taking too much time for you (asking your HR department, etc.).
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Just to put some additional oil in the fire and have a clear statement out there: any bank that wouldn’t have acted like they did, is in itself a red flag. These are regulations, welcome to adult hood.
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No point in lying, of course. I understand that the bank needs to know the source of income as well as the amount, but in my opinion the details of a work contract are none of their business. Your contract to open accounts is one thing, but having a copy of an employment contract filed in the customer’s file is something else for which I have some misgivings…
I’m all for giving out the necessary information, nothing more, nothing less. What annoys me is when my datas are used to be resold to third-party companies (such as insurance call centers, which I’m sure you know what I’m talking about) or used for profiling to sell me services I don’t need.
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Otherwise just bring the first pages of your contract with your salary.
They don’t mind about all the other parts.