Those who live in the city of Basel will automatically have 10 percent deducted from their gross salary. And the Basel people even voted for in favour of it. Have they been really drugged or is that just a rumour?
It’s an advance tax payment. For many people, tax debt is a problem; not everyone has the discipline to set aside money for taxes. Besides, you can opt out. What’s the problem?
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I personally think it’s really important to still have a single tax bill - in the mail, not online, where it says you owe 5000, 12000 or 25000 CHF in taxes - in fact I’d even go as far as saying it’s fundamentally important to the swiss fiscal mentality.
The whole reason politicians (and voters in favor) prefer this is because they are the people that want higher taxes anyway. This is no problem for me personally - we have a federal system and each Canton enjoys this freedom. What I do have a problem with is “Salamitaktik” - so the fact that this is the first step in raising taxes.
It’s quite simple, how many people would pay for Netflix if they had to pay 240 CHF a year?, far less than there are people ready to pay 20 CHF a month.
Imho there should be a crackdown on these monthly subscription models - the business idea of renting people stuff out for a (supposedly) small dime and keeping them hooked is good for companies, but bad for the consumer imho.
The problem is that it reverses the role of government and citizens. It should be the job of the government to explain to their citizens why they should have to pay taxes. Not just take takes from them. Opt out is not the solution, it’s the default that matters.
Having written that, if the voting people approve such a change, I accept that even if I personally would never vote yes to such a change.
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Dear omtatsat, please include some link or a better description of what you’re talking about 
Well, this is surprising considering the amount of challenges a debt collection process can trigger.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, about nine percent of people in Switzerland live in households with tax arrears. Hundreds of thousands have already been subject to debt collection proceedings due to unpaid tax claims. Proponents want to prevent such problems before they even arise.
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I don’t see what this has to do with raising taxes. These 10% will still be less than what’s due in the end. And of course there will be a single tax bill once a year, stating how much you owe and listing what has already been paid and the interest on those payments. As has always been the case with voluntary advance payments.
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I think people generally understand what taxes are for. And even if they don’t and refuse to pay, the money will eventually be “just taken from them” anyway.
Those on B permit have been paying withholding tax anyway.
What would you prefer:
- Paying 100% of the taxes mid-year
- Spreading the payments over the year in monthly/quarterly payments
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Fully agree. It’s the way that the money is taken from them. Psychologically it makes a big difference if the money is taken from your salary or if the government has to take steps to enforce the collection. It’s a different relationship between citizens and government.
As I said, Salamitaktik - it’ll be much easier to raise taxes once this system had 1-2 generations conditioned to it.
What many people of the “make it convenient” and “some people are not good at budgeting” don’t get is that removing this doesn’t make them better with budgeting - it conditions them to become even worse at it.
If it is just the form, (at source deduction) would you be ok if they just sent a monthly invoice instead?
I guess I only see money, and there’s a big money issue here.
Debt collection is not free. Starting the process, contesting, involving lawyers, all these have a Swiss price. If someone owes 30+k in taxes, the money spent recovering it may be a low fraction of the debt.
But, I can bet that the 9% of households in tax arrears are in the lowest income bracket or part-time work, and thus the lowest tax amounts. I wouldn’t be surprised if the debt recovery expenses approach the amount of taxes to be paid. So, debt recovery is just cantons paying people for bullshit jobs where no value is created at all. But, cantons have no option but to collect these debts. Regardless of how much it costs, they have to go after debtors.
If the automated deduction reduces the number of debt collections, canton net tax income goes up, and people in debt collection can find a new job where something of value is created. The opportunity cost of having intelligent people working on this is quite high.
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Switzerland is one of the few countries in the world that doesn’t have Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax deductions for salary/wage earners. I don’t see a problem with a pragmatic withholding tax.
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I would be for it if it was an opt-in system where you get a bill where it says. “You owe 15K in taxes CHF - if you want auto collection per month, sign here”
What I don’t want is “you pay 1’250 in taxes per month”.
I very much agree with this as well.
EDIT: But it’s no surprise - BS is barely Switzerland (culturally and politically special) and it’s no wonder out of all cantons, they decide to do it that way. Might as well give them to Germany or France 
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Fully agree. None of the services of a government are free. It’s always a question of priorities where to spend the money. As for myself, I’m happy to have my tax money support the current system and its expenses.
This a financial view of a private citizen or a private company. Public government doesn’t have to have individual cost centers that even out income and expense. Similarly, the police doesn’t have to generate enough income to cover all their direct and indirect expenses.
I disagree. Debt collection is the interaction between the government and citizens who cannot or don’t want to agree with government decisions. Such interaction is of high value.
This a fully true. Still, other countries should not per se be a reason why Switzerland should move in the same direction. It should be for the benefit of Switzerland to move towards such a system of withholding tax, not because other countries do it. BS has now moved into this direction.
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I don’t know about other cantons, but in BS once it is clear how much your taxes are, the money is due (or most of the time even before that). So it makes sense to pay beforehand (a conto) anyway to avoid accumulating interest.
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The “Nationale Finanzausgleich” would miss us badly.
Not so long ago, when we had negative interest rates, Vaud didn’t want pre-paid taxes. They actually encouraged us to apply for a late filing (October) exemption.
Were payments due later accordingly? That would be even more problematic for some people, with debt accumulating legally.