SP National Council wants to withhold taxes directly from wages

Ten percent of the Swiss population has to pay taxes because they don’t have enough money. You could prevent that. In most countries, taxes are deducted directly from income. If you then claim deductible items in your tax return, you can reclaim the overpaid amount.

Voluntary direct deduction

SP People’s Councilor Emmanuel Amoos (42) now wants to introduce this to us and argues in favor of withholding taxes directly from wages in the future – but only if the employee also wants this. “It is important that those who want to continue to pay their taxes themselves can do so,” says Amoos.

The main goal is to combat tax debts. But the current system also initially means less income for the state.

employer duty

Amoos proposes that employers should withhold taxes directly from wages. “The inspiration for this solution is the withholding tax for foreigners,” explains Amoos. The employer must already pay the tax for this.

However, this means an extra effort for employers, especially for small businesses whose IT infrastructure is not prepared for this. The federal government should therefore investigate whether companies should be compensated or supported if such a levy is introduced.

Not the first time

The idea that taxes should be withheld directly from wages is not new. Time and time again, Parliament agrees with her. Most recently, in 2014, then SP National Councilor Margaret Kiener Nellen (69) called for such a direct deduction that the cantons could introduce independently.

The Federal Council criticized the fact that people do not always live in the same canton where they work and that complications would arise. In addition, he saw no guarantee that the proposal would help against tax debts.

Testing forms the basis

The Zurich economist Ernst Fehr (66) supported the idea in 2016 with a report. A voluntary direct deduction would reduce tax debts: he explained, among other things, that it was not clear to newcomers or people who suddenly earned more what that meant from a tax point of view.

Amoos followed the research directly: tax deduction is direct, but voluntary and with compensation for the effort. The math seems to work, he managed to score points outside the party lines.

Wide support

85 National Councilors from Green Party Chairman Balthasar Glättli (50) to Valais SVP National Councilor Michael Graber (41) have signed his request. The starting position is therefore better than in the last attempts.

“You can do a lot of marketing with advances,” says Amoos. But: “For me it is important that before I submit something, I know whether the idea can count on the support of the other parties.” Only then can you really change something.

The responsible committee of the National Council will discuss the initiative on Monday.