Tag Archives: Personal finance

20 Minutes. Some Swiss politicians would like to focus minds on the costs of going to the doctor to reduce the number going for the most minor of reasons. © Tyler Olson | Dreamstime.com Their plan would require deductibles to rise annually in line with increases in the cost of basic health insurance. Higher deductibles, they think, would put people off going to the doctor unecessarily, reducing pressure on the health system. On Thursday, parliament voted in favour of such an idea by 129 votes...

Switzerland’s Federal Council is looking at a proposal to make pension payments compulsory for self-employed workers in the same way that they are for salaried workers. © Katatonia82 | Dreamstime.com In Switzerland there are three elements to pensions. A universal state pension, funded from social security payments, a second element, known as a second pillar, which is a pot built up from sums deducted from salary, and a third pillar, which is an optional tax deductible amount...

Switzerland’s Federal Council is looking at a proposal to make pension payments compulsory for self-employed workers in the same way that they are for salaried workers. © Katatonia82 | Dreamstime.com In Switzerland there are three elements to pensions. A universal state pension, funded from social security payments, a second element, known as a second pillar, which is a pot built up from sums deducted from salary, and a third pillar, which is an optional tax deductible amount...

According to a recent report by the bank Credit Suisse, the Swiss are worth more on average than the residents of any other nation. The bank’s annual Global Wealth Report calculates average net worth per Swiss adult to be US$ 561,900 (CHF 567,500). Switzerland’s combined personal wealth of US$ 3.5 trillion represents 1.4% of the global total, while the nation’s population represents 0.1% of the global total. © Astra490 | Dreamstime.com Australia in second place, was well behind Switzerland...

According to a recent report by the bank Credit Suisse, the Swiss are worth more on average than the residents of any other nation. The bank’s annual Global Wealth Report calculates average net worth per Swiss adult to be US$ 561,900 (CHF 567,500). Switzerland’s combined personal wealth of US$ 3.5 trillion represents 1.4% of the global total, while the nation’s population represents 0.1% of the global total. © Astra490 | Dreamstime.com Australia in second place, was well behind Switzerland...

24 Heures. Swiss financial markets regulator Finma is not planning to loosen mortgage lending directives, according to its director Thomas Bauer, after the bank Raiffeisen expressed a desire for looser lending rules. © Sebastian Czapnik | Dreamstime.com In an interview with Zentralschweiz am Sonntag, Bauer said that this could allow certain households to get mortgages that they wouldn’t be able to service over the long term. In 2014, Finma put pressure on banks to increase the hurdles to...

Last Friday, the federal Swiss tax office published the latest statistics covering the wealth and earnings of the nation’s more than 5 million tax payers – Switzerland has wealth tax, so net worth is included in tax returns. The highest percentage of the very wealthiest (CHF 10 million plus) lived in Schwyz. Geneva also made the top five cantons in this category. Freienbach in Schwyz source_wikipedia_Roland zh The 2013 figures published last Friday show, from 2010 to 2013, the total net worth...

Tribune de Genève. According to the NZZ am Sonntag, in September, Swiss supermarket Migros launched a new system which offers personalised discounts. The discount experiment will run for a year in stores in Geneva, Nyon, Bern and Zurich. © Hai Huy Ton That | Dreamstime.com What is it exactly? Those with Cumulus loyalty cards will receive special offers via an app on their phones or personalised discount coupons at check out. Algorithms crunch purchase history data associated with a customer’s...

Tribune de Genève. According to the NZZ am Sonntag, in September, Swiss supermarket Migros launched a new system which offers personalised discounts. The discount experiment will run for a year in stores in Geneva, Nyon, Bern and Zurich. © Hai Huy Ton That | Dreamstime.com What is it exactly? Those with Cumulus loyalty cards will receive special offers via an app on their phones or personalised discount coupons at check out. Algorithms crunch purchase history data associated with a customer’s...

20 Minutes. Residents of German-speaking Switzerland appear to doing less shopping across the border, something that has also been observed in Geneva. © Jochenschneider | Dreamstime.com According to the newspaper the Handelszeitung, Swiss cross-border shopping peaked in 2015 and local customs posts have seen a decline in VAT and duty collected since March. At the border in Kreuzlingen, near Lake Constance, VAT and import duty collected was down 10%. At the Lörrach bei Riehen crossing near...