1 Where the applicable agreement provides for an upfront payment, Swiss paying agents shall arrange for the formation of an implementation vehicle which shall manage on their behalf all rights and administrative obligations arising in conjunction with the execution of the upfront payment.
2 The implementation vehicle shall not be liable for obligations under the applicable agreement and this Section, subject to the provisions of paragraph 3. It shall inform the FTA of all facts of relevance to the implementation of this Section.
3 The Federal Council shall specify the date on which the upfront payment to the FTA becomes due. It shall also specify the deadline by which the implementation vehicle shall issue an irrevocable loan commitment to the FTA. Where the amount of the irrevocable loan commitment is lower than the upfront payment set out in the applicable agreement, the implementation vehicle shall inform the FTA, before expiry of this deadline, which Swiss paying agents have participated and how much they have contributed to the upfront payment.
4 Where the upfront payment set out in the applicable agreement has not been paid in full by the deadline set by the Federal Council, the FTA shall issue the payment orders necessary for timely execution of the upfront payment.
5 It shall issue payment orders to Swiss paying agents accounting for more than 0.5% of the retention levied under the Agreement on the Taxation of Savings6 in relation to the partner state. The share determined on the basis of the last statistics furnished by paying agents to the FTA prior to the applicable agreement being signed is decisive. The upfront payment shall be divided among these paying agents based on their respective share.
6 The FTA shall not issue any payment orders to those paying agents participating in the implementation vehicle if the contribution made by the implementation vehicle fully covers the total contributions payable by such paying agents to the upfront payment. Otherwise, the FTA shall deduct the contribution already paid by a paying agent from the corresponding payment order, provided that it has reliable knowledge that the contribution has been paid.
7 The FTA shall transfer to the Swiss paying agents or the implementation vehicle the amount of the one-off payments offset against the upfront payment in proportion to their share in the upfront payment.