Switzerland Votes on Nationwide Minimum Tax for Top Earners

[Joanne98]

Source: Bloomberg

Swiss voters will decide this weekend whether to increase taxes for the nation’s top earners, risking the country’s reputation as a low-tax refuge for well-paid and wealthy residents.

Voters will decide on Nov. 28 whether to enact minimum taxes on income and wealth. The initiative was started by the Social Democratic Party. A poll conducted among 1,207 people between Nov. 8 and Nov. 13 by gfs.bern showed that 46 percent favor the proposal, while 39 percent said they oppose it. The poll had a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

In Switzerland, 26 cantons are competing for the wealthy by offering low income-tax rates. This puts middle-income families at a disadvantage as they aren’t offered those favorable rates, the Social Democrats say. In addition, the country’s densely populated cantons such as Zurich can’t afford to offer low tax rates as they bear higher costs for infrastructure than smaller cantons such as Schwyz or Obwalden.

“The measure would curb this detrimental tax competition,” the Social Democrats said on the campaign’s website. The current system “jeopardizes national solidarity and only has a few winners: the rip-off artists and the super- rich who can relocate to where they get the best offers at any time.”



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-26/switzerland-votes-on-nationwide-minimum-tax-rate-for-top-earners-wealthy.html