Swiss group launches referendum against individual taxation

Alliance launches referendum against individual taxation Keystone-SDA

The introduction of individual taxation of spouses in Switzerland would create new inequalities, says an all-party group launching a referendum.

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The referendum was launched against the indirect counter-proposal to a popular initiative, which the group labels as deception.

Individual taxation would not lead to greater equality, the group argues. Instead it would penalise families, since married couples with only one income or very different incomes would be taxed significantly more than couples with two similar incomes. Families, single people and the middle class would be the most affected, while double-income earners would benefit instead.

Individual taxation would also be a “huge bureaucratic monster” due to the additional administrative burden of CHF1.7 million due to more tax returns being processed, the group adds.

In the summer session, parliament recommended a yes vote for the popular initiative ‘For Fair Taxes’, which proposes a switch to individual taxation for all taxpayers, and drew up an indirect counter-proposal – at the legislative level, therefore – that takes up the contents of the proposed constitutional amendment.

The Conference of Cantonal Finance Directors (CDF) spoke out against both the popular initiative on individual taxation and the counter-proposal, preferring joint taxation of married couples.

In order to solve the tax penalisation of married couples, the opponents propose another solution: ‘Yes to fair federal taxes also for married couples – No more marriage discrimination!’.

This proposed constitutional amendment, which only concerns direct federal taxation, explicitly provides for the accumulation of spouses’ income in the tax declaration.

This excludes a switch to individual taxation.

Translated from Italian by DeepL/mga

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