By SWISS business warned this week that a plan to impose minimum taxes on the ultra wealthy will prompt rich residents to emigrate and make the country less attractive as a location for top companies.
Switzerland votes in a referendum on November 28 on a proposal by the centre-left Social Democrats (SP) to levy a minimum tax of 22 per cent on income above 250,000 Swiss francs ($254,000) and 5 per cent on assets above 2 million francs.
“This initiative would be damaging for Switzerland,” said Ursula Fraefel of business lobby economiesuisse, which is leading the campaign against the initiative.
“If a company owner is taxed on his wealth, he will invest less in his company which could affect jobs and it could influence his decision on whether to be based in Switzerland.”
Worried by opinion polls which suggest voters are likely to approve the plan, leading industrialists have warned they might leave the country.
“Switzerland means a lot to me but my tax rate would rise to over 70 per cent. That is expropriation and intolerable,” Alfred Schindler, billionaire chairman of the lift company that carries his name, told the SonntagsZeitung newspaper.
“Switzerland is becoming socialist,” he said.
Other millionaires watching the vote include Marc Rich, the founder of commodities trading giant Glencore, and tennis ace Roger Federer, reported Der Sonntag newspaper.
Switzerland has the highest concentration of millionaire households in Europe.
Swiss cantons compete to offer low tax rates to individuals and companies, making the country popular with foreign firms, particularly in the lowest tax cantons of Zug and Schwyz.
The SP says the proposal should hit only about 1 per cent of Swiss taxpayers, but could also affect rich foreigners who get tax breaks if they move to Switzerland but do not work here.
Switzerland has attracted millionaires like pop star Tina Turner and racing driver Michael Schumacher with special tax deals.
SP parliamentarian Margret Kiener Nellen said she hoped the referendum would give Swiss voters a chance to express their anger over corporate pay and big bank bonuses.
“People are sick of the wheeler-dealers and the super rich,” she told Reuters. “I don’t think Schindler will leave. It is an empty threat. Where would he move to? He could go to Monaco, but he could have done that years ago.”
