When you don’t pay your taxes and it’s the taxman’s fault

Keystone

Almost every article published by swissinfo.ch contains a percentage, an age, an amount of money or some other figure. Here’s a round-up of the most interesting statistics to appear in the past week’s stories.

Monday

1.42 billion

That’s the amount of money, in Swiss francs, Google earned in advertising revenue from the Swiss online media sector last year. It accounted for a whopping two-thirds of the entire Swiss market. 

Tuesday

8

Eight members of the former An’Nur Mosque in Winterthur were found guilty of threatening and illegally detaining two people who had informed a journalist of suspicious activities. Those activities were connected to the alleged radicalisation of youths in the mosque which has been suspected of links to radical Islamic movements.

Wednesday

500,000

Half a million francs were earmarked to promote digitalisation in small companies based in mountain regions. The scheme is considered essential to stop people abandoning Alpine communities for better opportunities elsewhere.

Thursday

1.8 billion

That’s the amount of taxes the Swiss Federal Audit Office has been unable to collect due to a digital hitch in the office’s new IT system. For a time, the software was unable to send invoices or reminders.  

Friday

2

It takes two to tango, and that’s what Swiss luxury group Richemont decided it wanted to do when it announced a hook-up with China’s Alibaba. The two will launch mobile apps to sell exclusive products to Chinese consumers online.