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Currently, anyone ordering something from outside Switzerland, must pay Swiss Post an administrative charge if their package attracts import tax (duty and/or VAT). In addition, they must pay Swiss Post an additional CHF 13 if the parcel needs to be opened, usually because the package has been poorly labelled. © Denis Linine | Dreamstime.com Swiss Post has a contract with Swiss customs to process packages coming into the country. Yesterday, Switzerland’s upper house (Council of States) agreed...

Switzerland’s public price watchdog chief, Stefan Meierhans, also know as “Mr Price”, has taken aim at high Swiss drug prices. © Mauricio Jordan De Souza Coelho | Dreamstime.com A report published last week shows prices of generic drugs are nearly 2.4 times more expensive in Switzerland compared to the average price across 15 european countries. Generic drugs in the Netherlands cost 8% of what they cost in Switzerland. Source: Annual report of Swiss price watchdog Anyone arriving in...

The bank Raiffeisen has dropped its attempt to reduce minimum deposit requirements for home loans, according to RTS. Last autumn, it unveiled plans to reduce loan deposit requirements. However, last week, the bank announced that FINMA, Switzerland’s financial regulator, was opposed to the idea. Source: Raiffeisen FINMA sets guidelines for mortgage lending in Switzerland which banks follow. Anyone wishing to use mortgage finance to purchase a home must meet three requirements. First, they must...

Importance of Hiding Gold Creatively and Securely If Taking Delivery Why gold retains value? Interesting unknown gold facts "Prepare your jaws for a sizeable drop!" History, finite, rare and peak gold "It is beautiful to look at..." 'Heavy metal' - Thud sound of a gold bar (kilo) 'Going for gold' - Olympic gold medals to Chelthenham 'Gold Cup' Peak gold ... "Hard work to get gold out of the ground..." How much an Oscar is actually worth? Importance of hiding gold creatively and securely...

Submitted by Jan Skoyles via GoldCore.com, The Oscars – Worth Their Weight in Gold? 89th Oscars to air this weekend Oscars have been dipped in 24 karat gold since 1929 If the Oscars were made of solid gold they would weigh 330 ounces 330 ounces of gold is worth $408,210 at today’s prices (nearly €400k & £330k) Only some $630 worth of gold in Oscar statue Oscars cannot be sold due to regulations Steven Spielberg keeps his gold Oscar with the Academy for...

The Oscars - Worth Their Weight in Gold? 89th Oscars to air this weekend Oscars have been dipped in 24 karat gold since 1929 If the Oscars were made of solid gold they would weigh 330 ounces 330 ounces of gold is worth $408,210 at today's prices (nearly €400k & £330k) Oscars cannot be sold, making them a tricky investment piece Steven Spielberg keeps his gold Oscar with the Academy for ‘safe-keeping’ Shows importance of owning gold in safest ways Price of gold has climbed from $20.67...

20 Minutes. Some who move to Switzerland might not be aware that they are almost certainly required to pay one of the world’s highest broadcasting licence fees. An annual Swiss licence costs CHF 451.10 per household. The onus is on you to determine if you are liable, sign up with Billag, a subsidiary of Swisscom, and pay. Just because you haven’t registered doesn’t mean you are OK. Fines for non-compliance run as high as CHF 5,000. © Piotr Wawrzyniuk | Dreamstime.com Billag AG collects around...

In 2014, the average gross annual salary for a full-time male worker in Switzerland was CHF 81,000, CHF 10,000 or 12.5% higher than that of an average woman. But what does this high level difference mean? Inspired by the Swedish statistician Hans Rosling, who passed away recently, I decided to dig deeper to see what was behind this top line pay difference. Hans Rosling had a knack for using statistics to expose bias and our inbuilt tendency to overlook change. He would take numbers from the...

Speaking to Tribune de Genève, Serge Dal Busco, Geneva’s minister of finance, voiced his concerns about last Sunday’s rejection of Switzerland’s planned company tax reform. At the same time he remains optimistic about the chances of a new federal corporate tax reform project. © Cornelius20 | Dreamstime.com His biggest concern is that Bern might backtrack on its promise to help the cantons replace the lost tax revenue created by lowering standard tax rates. Switzerland’s federal...

Switzerland’s federal authorities have issued a trojan warning. A trojan is a malicious computer program designed to hack computers. The trojan is hidden in an email pretending to come from Swisscom, advising of an invoice. The fake invoice contains malware known as Dridex, a piece of software designed to steal banking information. It starts by installing a keyboard listener. The government agency Melani, recommends being careful not to open any documents in the emails, and to make sure that...