Tag Archives: Editor’s Choice

In 2018, Swiss Rail made a profit of CHF 568 million, 42.5% more than in 2017. Part of the rise was due to higher than average spending on maintenance in 2017. © Erix2005 | Dreamstime.com It is worth noting that Swiss Rail receives a large sum from taxpayers every year. In 2018, the company received CHF 3.5 billion of public funding, CHF 2.7 billion of it booked as income. Without this large lump of taxpayer help Swiss Rail would have made a loss of CHF 2.2 billion in 2018. One way the...

Over the first three months of 2018 Swiss authorities made 80 requests for Facebook user data, however two thirds of them were ignored, according to the newspaper SonntagsBlick as reported in 20 Minutes. © Klevo _ Dreamstime.com When the requests were urgent the response rate rose to two thirds of requests. Reto Nause, who is responsible for security in the city of Bern, is unhappy with the social network’s response record. Several years ago his team asked for information on user activity in...

© Panuwat Dangsungnoen | Dreamstime.com Since 1 January 2019, companies abroad making more than CHF 100,000 in revenue must charge Swiss VAT on sales made to anyone in Switzerland. Now the Swiss government has decided to take aim at online platforms such as Aliexpress and Wish, according to the broadcaster RTS. Rather than chasing foreign companies selling products in Switzerland, Beat Vonlanthen, an MP from Fribourg,...

In 2018, Switzerland’s population consumed around 87,000 tonnes of chocolate. © Astra490 | Dreamstime.com However, average chocolate consumption dropped from 10.5 kg per person in 2017 to 10.3 kg in 2018, a decline of roughly 2%. This decline reflects last year’s longer hotter summer, according to the industry association Chocosuisse. The fall in consumption of Swiss chocolate in Switzerland declined further, dropping by 3.4%. The gap was filled by increased imports of chocolate from outside...

Since 1 January 2019, companies abroad making more than CHF 100,000 in revenue must charge Swiss VAT on sales made to anyone in Switzerland. © Panuwat Dangsungnoen | Dreamstime.com Now the Swiss government has decided to take aim at online platforms such as Aliexpress and Wish, according to the broadcaster RTS. Rather than chasing foreign companies selling products in Switzerland, Beat Vonlanthen, an MP from Fribourg, wants online platforms to charge and collect Swiss VAT on all items sold...

In this year’s Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey, Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore tied for the the position of the most expensive. © David Prahl _ Dreamstime.com The survey looks at 160 items including food, drink, rent, transport and utility bills, in 133 cities. New York, the base city, came in 7th, alongside Seoul and Copenhagen. Zurich and Geneva were 4th and 5th. The ten most expensive cities were: 1. Singapore (Singapore)1. Paris (France)1. Hong Kong (China)4. Zurich...

Switzerland’s Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) has decided to further regulate drones by forcing owners to register them, according to the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag. © Williammacgregor | Dreamstime.com The new requirement, which will probably start in 2020, was suggested in 2017. Drone registration would be done online by the owner. How the police would access the database is still being considered. Currently, those flying drones weighing more than 30 kg require authorization. There are...

© Valeriya Potapova | Dreamstime.com Today, Switzerland’s parliament decided to bring in a system of regular increases in the deductibles for basic compulsory Swiss health insurance, according to the newspaper Le Matin. However, a plan to raise the the minimum deductible to CHF 500 was rejected by a clear majority. Between 1996 and 2004, the minimum deductible went from CHF 150 to CHF 300. Higher deductibles up to a...

Mercer’s 2019 livability ranking looks at 231 cities across the globe. Vienna comes top for the tenth year in a row, while Bagdad ranks last. © Scanrail | Dreamstime.com Three Swiss cities are among the global top ten. Zurich is 2nd, Geneva 9th and Basel 10th. Bern, a fourth Swiss city, is not far behind in 14th place. No other Swiss cities were included in the survey so there is no way of knowing where Lausanne Winterthur, Luzern or St Gallen might have ranked. The ranking is based on the...

Today, Switzerland’s parliament decided to bring in a system of regular increases in the deductibles for basic compulsory Swiss health insurance, according to the newspaper Le Matin. © Valeriya Potapova | Dreamstime.com However, a plan to raise the the minimum deductible to CHF 500 was rejected by a clear majority. Between 1996 and 2004, the minimum deductible went from CHF 150 to CHF 300. Higher deductibles up to a maximum of CHF 2,500 can be selected in return for a premium discount. The...