Tag Archives: Editor’s Choice

This week, Switzerland’s Federal Council decided the planned electronic motorway vignette will be optional. Drivers will be able to choose. © Denis Linine | Dreamstime.com Anyone wanting to drive on Switzerland’s motorway network must first buy a vignette, a road tax sticker introduced in 1985, which must be displayed on the windscreen. It currently costs CHF 40. The government’s announcement that the new electronic vignette will be optional is a response to concerns relating to data privacy....

Nestlé recently announced that the global headquarters of Nespresso will move from Lausanne to Vevey. The announcement confirms rumours that have been circulating for some time. © Zingaraheureux _ Dreamstime.com While the move will affect around 350 staff no redundancies are planned. From 2021, Nespresso’s global management team will be housed in a building it owns containing the Nest museum near Vevey’s train station. The global Nespresso team is currently spread across two rented sites in...

Switzerland’s unemployment benefits might be generous but they are strictly policed, as one recipient recently discovered. © Phartisan | Dreamstime.com For a period of up to approximately two years after losing a job, most workers in Switzerland receive 70% of their former salary up to a maximum of CHF 88,200 a year – the amount paid varies depending on circumstances1. To continue receiving the benefit recipients must show they are actively looking for work and file progress reports with...

Following a recently published decision by the Federal Tribunal, Switzerland’s highest court, VAT charged on Switzerland’s radio and TV licence from 2010 to 2015 will be refunded to all those who paid the fee over this period. © Radovan Smokon | Dreamstime.com The Federal Department of Communications (DETEC) has begun the process of coming up with the legal mechanics for the refund, which will be returned to households via a credit to a future licence bill. In April 2015, after the court...

A government commission has come out in favour of paid paternity leave and has until 2 March 2019 to discuss a plan to offer new fathers two weeks of paid leave, according to RTS. © Pojoslaw | Dreamstime.com The aim is to come up with a compromise between the 20 days in a referendum being put to voters at some point in the future, and the Federal Council’s rejection of any paid paternity leave. The commission said it is important to encourage changes that allow parents to share family...

A government commission looking at the rate, called for a reduction to 0.75%, while unions demanded a rise to 1.25%. In the end the Federal Council decided to take the middle road and leave the rate at 1% for 2019. © Andrey Popov | Dreamstime.com The rate is the minimum pension funds must apply to employment related 2nd pillar pension assets in 2019. Some pension funds are concerned about the long term effect imposed rates of return are having on the financial health of pension fund balance...

Before the advent of mobile phones few children had phone contracts. Now, many young children have them. So what happens when payments are missed? © Sebnem Ragiboglu | Dreamstime.com If the contract is with Swisscom, then children as young as 11 could have debt collectors pursuing them, according to a case reported by RTS. According to RTS, a 22 year-old woman ran into trouble renting a home after discovering she had a debt registered against her. When she was 13 her mother entered into a...

The high and rising suicide rate among Switzerland’s male farmers stands in contrast to the declining rate among rural men working in other professions, according to a new study by the University of Bern published by the newspaper SonntagsZeitung. © Leonid Eremeychuk | Dreamstime.com The suicide rate among male farmers was 38 per 100,000, a rate that has been rising since 2003. Between 1991 and 2014, 447 farmers in Switzerland took their lives. The rate among all rural men was 33 per 100,000...

© Scyther5 | Dreamstime.com After a referendum in March 2018 threatened to axe Switzerland’s costly broadcasting fee, the government put forward a counter proposal, which was adopted when 71.6% of voters voted to keep the fee. On 1 January 2019, the lower fee contained in the government’s plan will come into force. Next year, instead of CHF 451, each household will need to cough up CHF 365. Virtually every household...

After a referendum in March 2018 threatened to axe Switzerland’s costly broadcasting fee, the government put forward a counter proposal, which was adopted when 71.6% of voters voted to keep the fee. © Scyther5 | Dreamstime.com On 1 January 2019, the lower fee contained in the government’s plan will come into force. Next year, instead of CHF 451, each household will need to cough up CHF 365. Virtually every household must pay the fee. The range of possibilities for opting out is very narrow....