Tag Archives: Editor’s Choice

© Alyssand | Dreamstime.com The Swiss housing market continues to rise with no signs of weakening, reported RTS this week. According to the real estate platform immoscout24, the average price per m2 for a family home in Switzerland has risen from CHF 6,700 to CHF 7,200 over the last 12 months, a rise of 7%. Apartment prices have risen even further in some places. According to Roxane Montagner, who works for CiFi, a company that advises real estate professionals, the...

The Swiss housing market continues to rise with no signs of weakening, reported RTS this week. © Alyssand | Dreamstime.comAccording to the real estate platform immoscout24, the average price per m2 for a family home in Switzerland has risen from CHF 6,700 to CHF 7,200 over the last 12 months, a rise of 7%. Apartment prices have risen even further in some places. According to Roxane Montagner, who works for CiFi, a company that advises real estate professionals, the trend is not about...

From 1 January 2022, the cost of posting a standard letter for next day delivery (A-class) is 10% higher and a B-class letter 6% higher. These price hikes are the first of their kind in 18 years, reported RTS. © Christin Millhill | Dreamstime.comThe cost of posting a standard A-class letter is now CHF 1.10, up from CHF 1.00, the cost until 31 December 2021. The price of posting a standard B-class letter is now CHF 0.90, up from CHF 0.85. The price rise, announced in mid-August 2021,...

In some parts of Switzerland, welfare payments are sometimes considered more like bridging loans to help someone through a financially difficult period rather than a one-way payment. A recent case in the canton of Bern shows this system in action. © Andrey Anisimov | Dreamstime.comAccording to 20 Minutes, a man who received welfare over 20 years was asked to repay the money he’d received after an inheritance windfall in 2020. During the summer of 2020, the man received CHF 261,000 in...

The tax burden is set to rise in 10 Swiss cantons and fall in 16 in 2022, according to data published this week by the Federal Finance Administration (FFA). Nationally, the tax burden in 2022 will represent 24.6% of Switzerland’s tax potential, down from 24.8% in 2021. © Francisco Javier Zea Lara | Dreamstime.comWhile the national tax burden percentage offers some indication of the average rate of income tax, it can differ significantly because of the complexity and incomparability of the...

On 1 January 2022, new laws aimed at helping Swiss consumers will come into force. © Alexey Novikov | Dreamstime.comFrom 1 January 2022, foreign companies and brands will no longer be able to use geographic blocking to force consumers with Swiss IP addresses to shop on local Swiss web pages with different prices. Laws aimed at ending the practice of foreign brand and product owners forcing higher wholesale prices on Swiss retailers and consumers will also come into force on 1 January...

© David Johnson | Dreamstime.com On 17 December 2021, Switzerland’s Federal Council put forward a plan to tax the liquids used for e-cigarettes, reported RTS. The Federal Council is proposing a tax similar to the tax on tobacco but at a lower rate in line with e-cigarettes’ lower toxicity. The government does not want to discourage tobacco smokers from transitioning to e-cigarettes and proposes a rate 77% lower than the tax on tobacco cigarettes. The aim is to...

On December 2021, the Swiss government allocated CHF 45.4 million to three hydro projects. © Asdf_1 | Dreamstime.comSwitzerland’s electricity production was once dominated by hydro. In 1970, 90% of the electricity produced in Switzerland was generated using hydro. The remainder came from nuclear (5%) and fossil fuels (5%). Roll forward to 2020 and hydro makes up only 58% of production, with 5% produced from other renewables, 33% from nuclear and 5% from fossil fuels. Between 1970 and...

In Switzerland, the official state pension age is 65 for men and 64 for women. Government plans to make the retirement age 65 for both men and women have met with resistance from groups fighting against gender discrimination in Switzerland. © Ammentorp | Dreamstime.comThe change would not affect women about to retire, and those born between 1960 and 1968 would receive some extra compensatory pension payments. Groups against the move argue that the extra year of state pension women...

As inflation rises around the world, Switzerland feels the heat too. This week the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) published data on construction, which show an unusually large jump in costs. © Spunky1234 | Dreamstime.comThe costs of construction leapt 2.7% between April and October 2021, according to the data, leaving prices 4.1% higher than a year earlier. The construction index contains both civil engineering works and building construction. Between April and October 2021, the...