SWITZERLAND’S RENOWN as a tax oasis for the world’s rich will come under threat this weekend with a proposal to impose minimal income levies on the ultra-wealthy.
Business leaders have warned the plan by the centre-left Social Democrats (SP), which the Swiss will vote on in a referendum tomorrow, will prompt an exodus of rich residents and leave a gaping hole in the nation’s economy.
But the SP argues it will merely bring Switzerland into line with other countries’ tax regimes and create more fairness within the country.
Switzerland’s cantons or states attempt to attract the rich by undercutting each other on tax rates. It has made parts of the country magnets for the super rich, including business people, royals and celebrities.
Under the SP’s “tax initiative”, incomes of 250,000 Swiss francs (€188,000) would incur minimum levies of 22 per cent while assets of more than two million francs would be liable to 0.5 per cent.
If passed, the rule would apply to cantons across the country. At stake for cantons such as Schwyz, Zug and Obwalden are their special status as tax oases that cosset the rich. Residents of Zurich with an income of 350,000 francs pay about 110,000 of it in taxes, while in Schwyz the rate is just half that. – (Guardian service)