Sir, – David McWilliams did not touch on Switzerland’s decentralised system of taxation in his article (“Ireland needs a dose of ‘Protestant pragmatism’, where power is delegated to the people”, News Review, March 23rd).
Switzerland has three levels of taxation: federal (national government), cantonal (county) and communal (town or village). Each can adjust their tax levels to meet their spending needs and in the case of communes and cantons to compete with each other. This avoids the problem of tax revenues being paid to the capital and some distributed through political patronage to the regions. Competition ensures that taxpayers’ contributions are spent carefully. Village-level taxation also makes taxpayers less resentful of paying tax as they see it being spent on their children’s school, fixing roads, cleaning streets in their village, etc.
Looking at my annual tax returns, about 10 per cent of the total tax paid goes to the capital, 20 per cent to the village where I live (population 3,500), and the balance to the canton (county).
It has been said that Switzerland’s major export should not be watches, chocolate and private banking – it should be its system of government. If Ireland ever does unify, it would be an opportunity to reform its system of government away from the British model we inherited, which few would argue is best in class. – Yours, etc,
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KEVIN HIGGINS,
Founex,
Switzerland.
