The global minimum corporate tax is also likely to lead to additional revenue for the tax authorities in Switzerland. The responsible committee of the National Council believes that the federal government and the cantons should distribute the additional revenues from the OECD tax reform fairly and fairly.
The Stöckli saw it differently. At the end of September, the cantonal representatives in the Council of States decided to give the federal government only a quarter of the extra income. Three quarters should flow into the tax coffers of the cantons. But even this solution was a compromise between the Federal Council and the cantons. Because originally the idea was that the cantons would collect all the extra income.
Other applications don’t stand a chance
Given the high surpluses that the cantons reported in the spring and the large federal deficit caused by Corona, they now apparently want to take a different path. The National Council’s Economic Commission (WAK-N) is now asking for the foreseeable additional revenue to be cut almost in half.
Several proposals to leave the extra income entirely to the cantons or the federal government were not supported. The WAK-N also refuses to prescribe more precisely how the cantons should distribute their extra income among the municipalities.
2000 companies affected
The cornerstones of the OECD’s tax reform are beyond question. The core is a minimum tax rate of 15 percent for all companies with an annual turnover of more than 750 million euros. According to the Federal Council, about 2,000 companies in Switzerland are affected by the reform. 600,000 purely nationally active SMEs are not covered by the new regulation.
A constitutional amendment is needed to implement the reform, on which the people and the cantons will also have to make a decision after parliament in the early summer of 2023. On this basis, the OECD’s tax reform is to be implemented in Switzerland from 2024 – initially for a limited period by ordinance, later by ordinary law. (SDA)