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France sees flood of tax regularisation requests

Budget minister says 8,500 tax cheats have come clean after government agreed to reduce punishment for those who hide funds abroad.

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The French tax service has seen a flood of requests to regularise funds hidden abroad, a minister said Monday, as Switzerland has ended its vaunted banking secrecy under international pressure, reports GlobalPost.

"I issued a circular this June which has led to today more than 8,500 fraudsters submitting applications to regularise their situation before the tax authorities, that is in three months more than the previous four years," Budget Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on France Inter radio.

Cazaneuve's circular, which lowers the penalties for those who have hid funds abroad to come clean with French tax authorities, came as Swiss banks have pushed account holders to declare their funds at home as the Alpine country ends its tradition of banking secrecy.

Read more of this AFP report published by GlobalPost.