Switzerland Voting to Abolish 152-year-old Tax Break for Rich Foreigners

[discocrisco01]

The Swiss might ban the old tax break for the rich according to Business Week

"The rain lashing Geneva’s chic Rue du Rhone couldn’t drown out calls by Swiss campaigners for the abolition of a 152-year-old tax break for rich foreigners.
Sporting top hats, fur coats and sunglasses, members of the Socialist Party lampooned a system that allows foreigners to duck income tax by negotiating lump-sum payments with Swiss cantons. “No Tax For The Rich,” and “We Want Our Tax Haven,” said the placards carried by a group of 40 people handing out fake 1,000 Swiss-franc notes to shoppers last Saturday.
The apathy of diners entering Cafe du Centre on the adjacent Place du Molard is echoed in the latest poll that shows the protesters may be losing the fight before a Nov. 30 national referendum on the tax regime known as the forfait. Bankers and the government warn abolition will crimp revenues, cut jobs and reduce Switzerland’s appeal as rich foreigners flee Geneva and other French-speaking cantons that are home to most forfaits.
“Geneva has for decades been one of the most attractive international centers for wealthy individuals to settle and that’s largely down to the forfait,” said Justine Markovitz, head of the Swiss offices of Withers LLP, a law firm advising forfait holders. “Voting away the system would prompt many of them to leave and could damage the local economy.”
Four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel and Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg are among more than 5,000 people benefiting from a forfait, which the Socialist Party says can lower tax rates to less than 1 percent. Britta Roeske, a spokeswoman for Vettel, declined to comment on his tax situation. Vekselberg, whose net worth is $14.4 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, has a forfait, said Rolf Schatzmann, a spokesman for his company, Renova Group.
Latest Poll
A Nov. 19 poll by gfs.bern showed 46 percent of voters are against abolishing the forfait, with 42 percent in favor and 12 percent undecided. The poll of 1,412 people has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points. That reverses an Oct. 24 poll by gfs.bern showing 48 percent in favor of abolition and 36 percent against.
The highest numbers of forfaits are in the cantons of western Switzerland, including more than 700 in Geneva and 1,400 in neighboring Vaud. Valais, which includes the ski resorts of Verbier and Zermatt, has 1,300, according to the latest federal government figures from 2012."

If it passes, that it would be a good thing. Maybe, the rich will realize that they should better invest in their own countries rather than hoard the money in secret Swiss bank accounts.

[Thinkingabout]

1. They are creating jobs, huh, just not here in the US.