Strong support for SVP requirement: AHV pensions must be tax-free

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You work all your life, raise children and after you retire you don’t have enough money. This fate is becoming a bitter reality for many people with small and medium incomes at the end of an often strenuous working life.

And SVP National Councilor Erich Hess (42) thinks it is unreasonable. De Berner argues in a parliamentary initiative for the abolition of taxes on AHV pensions.

Help for low and middle income people

“All pensioners should be exempt from taxes on AHV pensions. That would be a great relief, especially for people with a middle and small income,” says Hess when asked by Blick.

And it would also have other benefits. Because of the progression, the current tax system means that retirees are financially penalized if they pursue a side job after retirement. Working longer would not only reduce the risk of poverty in old age, but would also relieve the burden on the public purse. Because it reduces the chance that someone will have to apply for a supplement.

Hess is not alone: ​​in addition to him, 57 national councilors from the SP, Greens, SVP and even some liberal and centrist politicians have signed the initiative. You could have good opportunities in the National Council.

A remedy for the shortage of skilled workers?

Another advantage of his idea, according to Hess: if retirees stay in work a little longer, “that would also counteract the huge shortage of skilled workers”.

Hess’s idea is not entirely new – various politicians from the left and right have tried several times to abolish taxes on AHV pensions. Until now, however, the Bundesrat has never wanted to know anything about it. The reason: the federal government, cantons and municipalities lost so much income.

In 2008, the Federal Council estimated that a total of 4.7 billion francs would be missing from the state coffers – more than 10 percent of total income tax revenues.

Source:Blick