le News

In 2017, 18.9% of Switzerland’s population lived in a household with outstanding debt repayments, a percentage that has rose from 17.7% over the proceeding 4 years.  © Kawee Srital On | Dreamstime.comThe most common forms of outstanding debts were taxes, health insurance premiums and phone bills. 9.9% of households had outstanding tax payments, 7.3% owed health insurance money and 5.2% had an outstanding telecommunications bill.  The most common reason for going into debt was to buy a...

Swiss Post has said it will no longer accept packages addressed to China, according to Tribune de Genève. © Wimseyed | Dreamstime.comBecause of the covid-19 virus, airlines have stopped or drastically reduced flights to China. This fall in air traffic has reduced postal service capacity to China by two thirds. Mail can still be sent if it is marked urgent, however delivery times cannot be guaranteed. Denmark, Georgia, Greece, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Spain and the US have also...

For school pupils in canton Valais, skiing could soon be part of the curriculum under plans to create three obligatory snow sports days a year, the NZZ am Sonntag reports. © Corepics Vof | Dreamstime.comChristophe Darbellay, the canton’s education minister, wants to get young people back on skis to ensure the future of the sport, which generated CHF 758 million in Switzerland from lift passes alone in 2018/19. The project, which will cost CHF 2.7 million, has been approved by the...

To simplify labelling, many international retailers put recommended retail prices (RRP) for multiple nations on the same label, like the one below. The Swiss retail price premium laid bare.Labels such as these show how much more Swiss customers are being charged compared to customers in other countries. The label above, from an item of clothing sold in Switzerland, shows how much more Swiss customers are charged. The RRP for Switzerland is the highest. The Swiss pre-VAT price is 21%...

A commission for the canton of Geneva’s government supports a tax on added sugar to fight obesity, according to the newspaper Le Temps.  © Lightpoet | Dreamstime.comBertrand Buchs and Delphine Bachmann, two elected officials active in the medical sector, are behind the initiative. The text required to implement the tax, which takes aim at added sugar, is likely to be put to a government vote in March 2020. The money collected would be spent on raising awareness of the damaging health...

Recently, the private bank Pictet, based in Geneva, announced plans to eliminate all of its investments in companies actively associated with the production and extraction of fossil fuels, according to a press release. © Kent Johansson | Dreamstime.comThe bank defines companies actively associated with the production and extraction of fossil fuels as those generating more than 25% of their revenue from activities with high carbon emissions. At the end on December 2019 the bank had...

Recently, the government of Portugal said it was looking at introducing a tax on foreigners residing in the country on special tax holidays, according to the magazine Bilan. © Tomas1111 | Dreamstime.comCurrently, foreigners moving to Portugal who spend at least 180 days a year in the country pay no income tax for a period of 10 years under a scheme that was launched 11 years ago. Not all income is tax free under the scheme. PWC, a tax consultancy, which describes Portugal as Europe’s...

Earlier this week, Switzerland’s Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) announced it had contacted the cantons at the end of January 2020, informing them it had not set a date for switching on 5G networks. © Tpibernik | Dreamstime.comHowever, mobile networks plan to continue installing 5G equipment after rolling out more than 2,000 antenna last year – a map showing where the new antenna are can be viewed here. FOEN says it needs more time to test the potential impact of 5G...

It will come as little surprise to many that Switzerland has been ranked the world’s most expensive country. © Marekusz | Dreamstime.comPut together by the magazine CEO World, the ranking pulls cost of living data on accommodation, clothing, taxi fares, utilities, internet, groceries, transport, and dining out, from a number of other studies. Norway ranks second, followed by Iceland, Japan, Denmark, Bahamas, Luxembourg, Israel, Singapore, and South Korea. The United States (20th),...

The tobacco company Philip Morris International (PMI) has unveiled plans to cut jobs at its sites in Lausanne and Neuchâtel. © Vitezslav Vylicil | Dreamstime.comA total of around 265 jobs are likely to go. Most of them will be transferred to the UK, Portugal and Poland. The company has opened formal processes in both cantons and those affected will be informed between now and the end of March 2020, it said. The company said its restructuring plans are part of its strategy to focus...