Swiss Bank a/cs

What is so special about these Bank a/cs?

I guess the Swiss used to be more lax in who they allowed to open accounts and what they were used for-I would be surprised if this is still the case to the same degree.

If you are an Irish resident, you are legally obliged to declare any earnings to Revenue on overseas bank accounts, regardless of where they are based.

Any use?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_bank_account

your obliged to declare earnings??? what if you don't earn any interest but have an overseas account do you have to declare the account???

Going from what I remember reading in a newsarticle a long time ago I think the difference is you can hide your money in one of these accounts and be guaranteeed total anonymity despite perhaps Irish law being broken/ignored by not declaring at home.
Under certain laws applicable over there not even the tax man can find out who you are as you get a number and not a name.

I think its the same in Austria , Switzerland and Andorra. I read a few years ago that there was pressure from the EU/Germany to change this and in Austria they brought in a higher tax rate for anonymous accounts there.
I think this was done as a compromise to Germany which complained about wealthy Germans driving across to Austria with a boot full of undeclared cash .

There is no guarantee of total anonymity-a Swiss Court could order the bank to turn over account details where there is evidence of criminal activity.

www.swiss-privacy.com has some interesting details.