Still in Parliament, a small tax revolution may have begun. The National Council has begun the debate on the revision of the taxation of married couples. The aim is to put an end to unequal treatment, by moving to individual taxation for everyone, both married and single people.
Currently, for a married couple, taxation is based on the combined income of both spouses. Since the tax is progressive, this solution disadvantages married couples. To take a concrete example, the tax bill is higher for two spouses declaring 100,000 francs of joint income than for two single people each declaring an individual income of 50,000 francs.
Under the Dome, all parties are ready to put an end to this inequality, but differ on how to achieve it. Thus, individual taxation, which the government proposes as a solution, does not convince the parties of the centre and the conservative right. In their eyes, this solution would certainly improve the situation for married couples where both spouses work, but would create a new inequality for more traditional couples, where one of the spouses takes care of the home. To take the previous example, with individual taxation, a couple where only one spouse earns 100,000 francs would be taxed more heavily than a couple where both spouses earn 50,000 francs.
This issue is an old sea serpent in Swiss politics. So far, no solution has ever been able to find consensus. And the debates in the National Council show that the matter is likely to drag on for a little while longer. They have been so long – with more than 60 interventions from the podium – that the Lower House has not yet had time to vote on the introduction of the matter. The debates will resume next Wednesday.
- The summaryExternal link debates in the National Council in the columns of Le Temps (subscription required)
