“LUMP-SUM” TAX RESIDENTS IN SWITZERLAND MAY SOON BE REQUIRED TO RELOCATE

Recently, the Swiss Federal Council rejected the initiative entitled ‘Stop the tax privileges for millionaires (abolition of lump-sum taxation)’.

The Swiss Federal Council is aware that expenditure-based taxation is caught between locational appeal and tax equity. The revision of expenditure-based taxation aiming to reach a compromise between tax equity and locational appeal should not be called into question again. The revision was adopted by the Federal Assembly in autumn 2012 and will come into force on 1 January 2016.

At the same time the ‘Stop the tax privileges for millionaires’ campaign has been running for some years, and has received a lot of support to force a national referendum on the issue. The referendum is scheduled on 30 November 2014. If the proposal receives the majority of votes, the Swiss government will be required to enact the relevant laws within three years.