Tax bill 17 - the WAK-N on course for the Council of States

The WAK-N has started the detailed consultation with the discussion about the additional financing of the AHV. In the end, the solution of the Council of States prevailed, as none of the following proposals found a majority: One motion, which was also submitted by the SGK-N, wanted to raise the retirement age for women to 65 instead of increasing wage contributions. The commission rejected this by 15 votes to 9 with 1 abstention. The majority is of the opinion that the question of retirement age should be regulated in the coming AHV reform. Another motion wanted to increase the federal contribution to the AHV to 20.4%, in return for which wage contributions would only be raised by 0.1%. It did not find a majority either. The FK-N proposed that instead of increasing wage contributions, a corresponding increase in value added tax should be provided for. This motion had no chance in the WAK and was rejected by 21 votes to 1 with 3 abstentions, as it would have required a constitutional amendment and would have delayed the tax reform. Several motions wanted to split the bill into a part concerning AHV financing and a tax part, whereby the two bills should remain legally linked. However, the Commission rejected these proposals by 15 votes to 10, as one proposal was significantly more transparent than two, which did not necessarily have to be put before the people together. The people are in a position to judge this reform as a whole. For the majority of the Commission, it is clear that social compensation is needed to ensure that the reform can stand up to the people. It therefore rejected two proposals by 15 to 10 votes, which did not want to provide for any social compensation at all.

The partial taxation of dividends was also controversially discussed in the WAK-N. Ultimately, however, proposals to increase taxation to at least 80% and 90% respectively at both federal and cantonal level were rejected at 19 to 5 and 19 to 6 respectively. Proposals to maintain the status quo were also clearly rejected by 16 to 8 with 1 abstention. Similarly, a motion that would have required the cantons to tax the tax in a way that was neutral in terms of legal form was rejected by 15 to 8 with 2 abstentions.
As far as the cantons' share of direct federal tax is concerned, the Commission rejected a motion by 13 votes to 7 with 5 abstentions, which would have increased it to 22.3% over a transitional period of 5 years. A motion to tighten up the municipal article (Art. 196 para. 1bis DBG) was narrowly rejected by 12 votes to 11.

The capital contribution principle (CEP) will only be discussed at the next meeting. Also the deduction for equity, the patent box, R&D deductions, as well as the adjustment of the financial equalization will not be discussed until the next meeting.

The detailed discussion will be concluded at the meeting on 3 September. After that, the flag with the Commission's proposals will also be published. The matter will be discussed in the National Council on 12 September.

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