While Europe nervously awaits the outcome of the Greek referendum, the country’s government has proposed another initiative to garner revenue.

Greece has asked for what appears to be a partial amnesty on money deposited by Greek citizens in Swiss banks.

The plan would be to impose a flat 21% tax on such assets in exchange for making them legitimate. This could raise millions in tax revenue for the desperate government, according to the Sunday paper NZZ am Sonntag, citing unidentified sources.

"We welcome the fact that Greece has presented a proposal to resolve this," the communications director at the Swiss state secretariat for international financial issues (SIF) was quoted as saying.

A spokesman at the finance ministry in Berne said: "We are in talks but nothing is decided yet."

According to the paper, there could be anywhere between €2 billion and €200 billion in Swiss banks.

Other countries, such as Portugal and Italy, have run amnesty programmes to repatriate funds held abroad. Such a move for Greece would suit Switzerland’s image as the country is being roped in to share information with EU countries on cross-border accounts by 2018.

The plan requires Greek parliamentary approval and a final accord with Switzerland.

Source: Algarve daily news