Voters in Switzerland have rejected a plan that would have kept generous multinational tax breaks intact:
Swiss voters have rejected a plan to reform the country's corporate tax system, sending the government back to the drawing board. Business and political circles in Switzerland had supported the plan, which was designed to prevent taxes rising sharply for foreign investors. However 59% of voters opposed the plan in Sunday's referendum vote.
The government will now need to find an alternative, which may involve higher tax rates for multinational companies. "It will not be possible to find a solution overnight," said Ueli Maurer, Switzerland's finance minister. He told a press conference it could take a year to come up with a new plan, and that Switzerland risked losing foreign investment as a result.
Also at Reuters, MarketWatch, and Bloomberg:
The government is at pains to find a solution at a time when countries such as the U.S. are seeking to gain a competitive edge with their own business tax reductions and after a strong currency-induced slowdown in economic growth. Switzerland, which has succeeded in attracting big global corporations like Procter & Gamble Co. and Caterpillar Inc., already bowed to international pressure and scrapped banking secrecy after a crackdown on tax evasion by other countries.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14 2017, @05:29AM
No Basic income for anyone, stand on your own or don't stand at all.
Open boarders for people, Closed boarders for Capital
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday February 14 2017, @07:26AM
Switzerland would get the whole of Italian population inside, if it had open borders.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Funny) by r1348 on Tuesday February 14 2017, @07:42AM
Let's not get ahead of ourselves here, we would not even FIT in there!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14 2017, @12:43PM
Switzerland would get the whole of Italian population inside, if it had open borders.
OP clearly stated "open boarders". He was obviously talking about pirate attacks on Swiss Merchant Marine [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14 2017, @05:29AM
BBC has a more important phrase "Currently Switzerland grants special status to foreign firms which allows cantons, or districts, to offer them lower rates of tax than domestic firms, making Switzerland an attractive destination for foreign investors." so foreigns get a better deal than local business. Sounds familiar. *
Proposed fix to comply with promise to end the situation was a trick: lower every business taxes, patch the holes with some federal help (money coming out of where?) and leave other holes open (probably all them if money not raised from sources like income taxes). Citizens didn't like a round of "less for you, and more from you, but they aren't cuts, reaaaally". This time it happened in a place where the people really can vote (and seem to be better educated than others), so politicians got told to shove it.
*: Politicians are lucky because people is still "civilized". Because trade wars... traitor politicians... collaborators at least, so they should get their heads shaved. ;) Oh, yes, I hear you, they do it to save the country, by selling the citizens. Yeah... it doesn't fly, at least in CH.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14 2017, @05:42AM
Here is a better idea, pay for yourself, if it does not make sense to set up some international scam business, it might make sense for someone local to set up and not scam local business increasing the local economy, but that never pays 20% a quarter, so they will find a way
(Score: 3, Informative) by Bot on Tuesday February 14 2017, @07:30AM
> it doesn't fly, at least in CH.
it also doesn't work anywhere else, in fact.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday February 14 2017, @02:31PM
"Business and political circles in Switzerland had supported the plan, which was designed to prevent taxes rising sharply for foreign investors."
That right there is a red flag. Those in business circles have exactly one goal, which is more money for themselves. They do not have the interests of their nation, their employees, their customers, or their vendors in mind. If they're meeting with political circles, then you can be sure that they are basically looking to convince the politicians to sell out their constituents. And if those in political circles are willing to go along with it, that almost definitely means that the politicians in question indeed sold out.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by mechanicjay on Tuesday February 14 2017, @05:48PM
Yes, this. I was prepared to make almost the exact same observation.
The important take-away here is that the Swiss people still retain control over their government -- its hasn't been taken over by corporatists.
My VMS box beat up your Windows box.