The Swiss lower house of Parliament voted yesterday to increase the standard VAT rate from 8% to 8.1% from 2018 to 2030. The move had already been approved by the upper house, the Senate.
The VAT rise is required to fund much-needed upgrades to the overcrowded Swiss national rail system. The rail industry believes it may need a larger VAT rise to meet the investment planned for the overhaul.
The current 8% Swiss VAT rate was set as a temporary rate from the start of 2011. It had been intended that the rate would return to 7.6% in 2018.
Richard Asquith, Head of Tax at TMF Group, commented:
"Whilst Switzerland has avoided the worst of the economic crisis, its taxes are still having to rise gradually to meet a spiralling public budget. Aside from depressing local spend, it creates an administrative and IT problem for local and multi-national corporations."
richard.asquith@tmf-group.com tel:+44 (0)79 777 23645