Swiss government rejects initiative to abolish marriage tax penalty

Federal Council opposes centrist initiative to abolish the marriage penalty Keystone-SDA

The Swiss government has rejected a Centre Party initiative to abolish tax penalties for married couples.

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The Federal Council declined to offer a counter-proposal, referring instead to ongoing work on the introduction of individual taxation.

As announced last June, the government is opposing the popular initiative “Yes to fair federal taxes for married couples”. On Friday, it passed the dispatch to parliament.

With the introduction of individual taxation, parliament is currently discussing an alternative concept with the same goal: to abolish tax discrimination against marriage. It remains to be seen whether the deal will be finalised.

The House of Representatives narrowly agreed while the Senate will decide next Monday.

In the view of the Federal Council, the initiative of the Centre Party conflicts with the bill on individual taxation. The question of the taxation model should be left to parliament and its scope should not be unnecessarily restricted by a constitutional requirement.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

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