Mr Daniel Lüthi

Daniel Lüthi, born in 1936, graduated from the Universities of Berne and Geneva, having achieved the State examination as a notary public. He joined the Swiss Federal Tax Administration in 1968 and engaged in international tax matters, including negotiations and the application of Swiss Double Taxation Conventions.

From 1980 to the end of 1998 he was Head of the Division for International Tax Law and Double Taxation Matters. In this function he was responsible for the Swiss tax treaty network. In 1983 he was appointed Director of the Federal Tax Administration and in 1994 he became the Delegate of Switzerland with respect to all international tax matters. He retired at the end of 1998 from Government service. Since then he is practising as an independent consultant.

In 1972 he became a Swiss delegate to the OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs and, after its reorganisation, a Swiss delegate to Working Party Nr. 1 on Double Taxation which is mainly responsible for updating the OECD Model Convention on Income and on Capital. He chaired this Working Party from 1990 until the end of 2002. In this function he took actively part in the Work of the OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs. Starting from 2003 he became a member of the Informal OECD Advisory Group on international tax matters. This Group of independent experts is focusing on issues related to tax treaties and is expected to give to the OECD Secretariat input on pending work of Working Party Nr. 1 as well as on issues to be taken up shortly by the Working Party.

Until recently he was the ad-personam expert of Switzerland in the United Nations Ad hoc Group on International Cooperation in Tax Matters. This Group is mainly updating the UN Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital.

Mr. Lüthi is a visiting professor at the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien. He has published numerous articles on international tax issues. Furthermore, he is regularly lecturing at international tax law conferences and seminars in and outside Switzerland. He also assists the OECD as an instructor in the OECD’s outreach tax programmes in the Far East as well as in other areas for more than twenty years.