Carl Levin

I want you to say that is, in fact, what you have acknowledged, because it is.

And would welcome the tools that we have in our bill?

In sum, the Swiss Government has not provided any records sought under the Treaty Request, and it is not clear when, if ever, it will.

Unless the U.S. Government already knows the names of specific taxpayers, the Swiss treaty generally cannot be used to get information in Switzerland about a U.S. person.

We are going to do everything we can to take away that ill-begotten gain because that is the way we view it.

It is questionable whether we can continue to hide tax evaders behind banking secrecy.

Maybe you have paid for it, but 40,000 American tax evaders have not.

UBS has committed wrongdoing by its own acknowledgment by referring U.S. clients who wanted to hide their assets to outside firms.

It is absurd that any country wants to make money off our loss of tax revenues, particularly friends.

And, again, these structures were being set up for the purpose of hiding who the true owner or beneficiary of the accounts were.

I do not know why I cannot get direct answers here. Your answers are needlessly evasive, it seems to me.

You agreed in court that, acting through your bankers and managers, you 'participated in a scheme to defraud the United States of America.'

Our focus should not just be on U.S. residents with securities accounts, but it should include non-resident U.S. citizens with securities accounts.

Generally it needs to have a specific taxpayer.

The IRS is investigating U.S. taxpayers who failed to report the existence of Swiss bank accounts--or income earned on those accounts.

This bill, and I think this Congress, and now this Administration; we are going head to head with those tax havens.

It is good news for American taxpayers, too, and we very much welcome that support.

Private bankers and managers would actively assist or otherwise facilitate certain undeclared U.S. taxpayers who such private bankers and managers knew or should have known they were evading U.S.

It is deeply troubling that thousands of the wealthiest among us have actively sought to evade their civic and legal duty to pay taxes.

Each year, the United States loses an estimated $100 billion from U.S. taxpayers using offshore tax schemes to dodge their U.S. tax obligations.

As a first step, Congress should enact the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, S. 506, which I and a number of my colleagues introduced earlier this week and which the Obama Administration endorsed yesterday through Treasury Secretary Geithner.

We are going head to head with tax secrecy jurisdictions.

Secretary Geithner stated that he fully supports my bill, S. 506, a bill which has a number of cosponsors, which is called the 'Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act.'

Thank you very much.

There is an effort in this bill... to cut down the parochialism by forcing consideration of cost and schedule, not just requirements.