Dhe Swiss voted on Sunday for a new climate protection law and for a reform of the taxation of large companies. According to projections, 58 percent of citizens voted for the “Federal Law on Goals in Climate Protection, Innovation and Strengthening Energy Security”.
Accordingly, the switch to climate-friendly heating systems is now being funded with additional public funds. The state will provide private homeowners with CHF 2 billion over the next ten years to replace oil, gas and electric heating systems with climate-friendly heating systems such as heat pump systems and wood heating systems.
Companies that invest in climate-friendly technologies are to be supported with a total of CHF 1.2 billion over the next six years. This is intended to achieve certain interim goals on the way to climate neutrality, which are aimed for in the year 2050, analogous to the obligations under the Paris climate protection agreement.
SVP put misleading information into the world
In contrast to the revision of the CO2 law, which was narrowly rejected by the people two years ago, the climate protection law does not provide for any bans or increased incentive taxes. As a result, the counter-campaign of the national-conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP) caught less than two years ago. By far the largest party in Switzerland was the only party to speak out against the new law and warned of rising electricity costs.
The party put out partly misleading information in the world. The satisfaction in the camp of supporters of the law is correspondingly high. “The SVP’s fake news campaign has failed,” said the co-president of the Swiss Social Democratic Party, Cédric Wermuth. The population made it clear that they wanted to promote climate protection through public investment.
The vote on the introduction of a supplementary tax for large companies was even clearer than that on the climate law. According to projections, 79 percent of citizens voted for the profits of corporations with annual sales of more than 750 million euros to be taxed at at least 15 percent from now on. In doing so, Switzerland follows a corresponding specification of the country organization OECD. In 18 of the 26 Swiss cantons, the ordinary income tax rates are still below the 15 percent threshold.
An estimated 2,200 companies are affected by the tax increase. The Confederation estimates the additional revenue from the supplementary tax in the first year at CHF 1 to 2.5 billion. They should go 25 percent to the federal government and 75 percent to the cantons, in which large corporations have had to pay less than 15 percent in taxes. However, all cantons benefit indirectly from the additional funds via the national financial equalization system. If the Swiss had rejected the tax increase, the difference to the 15 percent could have been levied by other countries. This regulation adopted by the OECD is likely to have greatly promoted popular approval.
The tax reform plans were also supported by business. “We wanted to keep the additional tax revenue in Switzerland and not give it away abroad,” said Monika Rühl, director of the business umbrella organization Economiesuisse, on Sunday afternoon on Swiss television. The companies now have legal certainty and now know where they have to pay the additional taxes. Rühl demanded that the new funds would have to be invested in Switzerland. The companies affected expected that they could maintain their competitiveness by making investments in research, climate protection, energy and education tax-deductible.
In fact, in cantons such as Zug and Basel-Stadt, which are particularly affected by the tax increase, all possible new options for promoting location quality are already being discussed. This includes improved or discounted offers for the care of small children and the expansion of international schools.
#Swiss #vote #climate #protection #law