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The Consultation on the draft law was opened by the Federal Council on March 11, 2022. Parliamentary consultation is expected to take place before the end of this year. SwissHoldings welcomes the present draft in principle and has only a few requests for adjustments. If the amendment to the constitution is approved by the Swiss electorate, our members believe it is urgent that the bill can enter into force as early as January 1, 2024
SwissHoldings today submitted its consultation response to the Federal Decree on a special taxation of large corporate groups (implementation of the OECD/G20 project on the taxation of the digital economy) to the Federal Department of Finance.
Brief overview of our position
SwissHoldings supports the implementation proposed by the Federal Council. It represents an excellent foundation to assist the cantons in maintaining their economic attractiveness. Despite Switzerland having high taxes in comparison to international standards, the proposal enables the Confederation and the cantons to secure tax revenues from large international companies. Whereby greatly contributing to the overall economy in both the medium and long term.
For further improvement, SwissHoldings proposes the following adjustments to the bill:
- Binding allocation of the supplementary tax revenue to the cantons: For various reasons of legal certainty and general planning, the provision states that the revenue from the supplementary tax is to be allocated in full to the cantons. While the tax is to be levied according to the polluter-pays principle, which should be anchored in Article 129a of the Federal Constitution.
- No excess federal competences: The Federal Council proposed a formulation of future federal competences in the area of taxation that aims to take into account not only the current but also future OECD tax reforms. As a result, important constitutional barriers particularly for the cantons will be removed within the framework of Article 129a para. 3 of the Federal Constitution. SwissHoldings advocates for an extension of competence to be as limited as possible and should focus on the current OECD tax reform.
For our detailed feedback as well as further arguments, please consult our full consultation response.
Further procedure
The consultation period runs until April 20, 2022. The Federal Council will then draw up and adopt the final dispatch on the basis of the comments received. The timetable is extremely tight. It is planned that the parliamentary discussion of the dispatch will be completed before the end of this year. SwissHoldings welcomes this approach and will closely follow the deliberations on the bill in parliament. A possible referendum is planned for as early as June 2023. Further information on the OECD digital taxation project can be found in the SwissHoldings dossier OECD digital taxation project.
For information:
Dr. Gabriel Rumo │ Director │ 079 712 20 20
Martin Hess │ Head of Taxes, Member of the Executive Board │ 078 805 04 95
Pascal Nussbaum │ Head of Communications & Public Affairs │ 079 798 52 40
