le News

On 25 June 2018, the city of Zug, the town at the heart of Switzerland’s crypto valley, started testing a voting system based on blockchain technology. © Denis Linine | Dreamstime.com During the trial, which runs until 1 July 2018, around 200 voters will cast non-binding municipal votes on mock questions in a trial designed to identify any bugs in a system built by the company Luxsoft and the computer science department of Lucerne’s University of Applied Sciences. In the Tweet below, Dolfi...

Currently, across EU and EFTA countries, unemployment benefits are paid by the country of residence. Last week, the EU announced plans to make the country of employment pay unemployment benefits instead. © Meryll | Dreamstime.com This change could be costly for Swiss cantons with large numbers of cross-border workers, workers who live in the EU but work in Switzerland. In March 2018, there were 316,000 workers in Switzerland living outside the country. Cantons with the most cross-border...

The 2017, a wealth report, published by Capgemini, shows there were 389,000 US$ millionaires in Switzerland, around 4.5% of the population, or close to 1 in 20. © Andrii Chernykh | Dreamstime.com If children under the age of 15 are excluded, Switzerland’s millionaire percentage rises to 7.3%. In addition, these figures include only investable wealth, which does not include the value of family homes. If this wealth was included, the number of millionaires would rise further. Switzerland’s...

On 21 June 2018, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced its decision on interest rates, which it left unchanged. Switzerland’s economy has been sailing into the headwinds of a strong currency since the SNB scrapped its exchange rate cap in January 2015 and the Swiss franc briefly went beyond parity with the euro. To weaken the currency, the SNB introduced negative interest rates and went on a spree of asset buying. Yesterday, the Bank said it will maintain its -0.75% interest rate and...

In Switzerland, much in life revolves around the canton. Cantons have their own health, social and education systems, parliaments and tax rates. © Swisshippo | Dreamstime.com Federal government, based in Bern, is a layer that sits over the top, bringing the cantons together as Switzerland. For some cantons, nationhood has a cost. For others it means extra money. Every year, based on a collection of complicated formulae, the federal government calculates how much certain cantons must pay other...

A report by The Boston Consulting Group highlights the size of Switzerland’s personal offshore wealth management sector. © Valeriya Potapova | Dreamstime.com Total personal offshore wealth grew by 6% to reach US$8.2 trillion in 2017. US$2.3 trillion (28%) of this was managed in Switzerland. The top three offshore centres: Switzerland ($2.3 trillion), Hong Kong ($1.1 trillion) and Singapore ($0.9 trillion) made up more than half (52%) of the total. If past trends continue, Hong Kong and...

Yesterday, Switzerland’s National Council, or parliament, voted 95 to 94, with 3 abstentions, to introduce quotas for the management and boards of quoted companies. © Lovelyday12 | Dreamstime.com Boards will be required to have 30% women and management teams 20%. The rules could affect 250 companies. At the same time the quotas will not come with sanctions. Companies would have to explain why the quotas had not been met and set out plans to meet them in the future. Speaking to RTS, Simonetta...

PostBus, the nation’s postal bus service, receives government aid based on its financial performance. © Artzzz _ Dreamstime.com With around 2,200 bright yellow buses operating on around 900 routes, it forms an important part of Switzerland’s transport network and employs around 4,000 people. However, not long after the private PostBus company was created in 2006, it started manipulating its accounts. An independent investigation calculated that unjustified state subsidies paid to it from 2007...

Last week, Vaud’s government announced a plan for future tax cuts. © Erix2005 | Dreamstime.com The residents of Vaud are among the highest taxed in Switzerland. In 2016, a single person in Lausanne earning CHF 100,000 paid CHF 16,050 in cantonal and communal tax on top of CHF 1,840 of federal tax. This was the fourth highest across all of Switzerland’s 26 cantonal capitals, and almost triple Zug, the lowest, where the figure was CHF 5,750 – see chart below. Against this background, the news...

Against the wishes of the Federal Council, Switzerland’s upper house, the Council of States, rejected a plan to prevent people from withdrawing lump sums from their 2nd Pillar pensions, according to the newspaper Tribune de Genève. © Edgars Sermulis | Dreamstime.com Last week, the Council of States voted 25 to 15 to reject the plan. The Federal Council thinks forcing people to convert their pension money into an annuity, which pays a regular income on retirement, will reduce the number of...