Parliament agrees at the last second

It’s an early Christmas present for many homeowners. In the very last minutes, the Federal Parliament agreed to abolish the imputed rental value. The Council of States gave in on Wednesday morning – and accepted the National Council’s conditions.

This means that the imputed rental value should now be consistently abolished for first and second homes. There will generally no longer be any debt interest deductions in the future. The Council of States recently took a stand on both questions. The small chamber wanted the imputed rental value to continue to be charged for second homes and 70 percent of the debt interest to still be deductible.

It is practically certain that the National Council will also give its blessing later this Wednesday – after all, the result corresponds exactly to its suggestions. But then the bill still has to survive the final vote on Friday – and that could be close again, as the debate in the Council of States showed.

After seven years of treatment, Parliament has managed, at least for the moment, to develop a proposal that has at least a majority within the Federal Parliament. It will take at least one referendum before the imputed rental value is actually abolished. It could take place in September.

The templates are linked

In order to compensate for the losses in the mountain cantons with a high proportion of second homes, the councils have put an initiative on track. This is intended to give the cantons particularly affected the opportunity to levy a property tax on second properties. Only if this gets a majority at the ballot box will the imputed rental value be abolished. Parliament has linked the two bills.

This will probably be another difficult ride. Since it is a constitutional change, the majority of the electorate and the cantons must agree. However, during the consultation, a large majority spoke out against a system change.

In its consultation response, the Conference of Mountain Cantons called for “the current system to be adhered to”. The failures are too high. The mountain cantons consider it “difficult to imagine” that these can be compensated for with a new property tax. The conference includes Uri, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Glarus, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Graubünden, Ticino and Valais. Power: 6.5 stands. In order for the majority to be achieved, at least 12 class votes are required.

Defaults of 1.7 billion francs

A look at the last voting Sunday shows that French-speaking Switzerland in particular is voting in a very tenant-friendly manner – the tenants’ association recommends a no vote to the proposal. If only Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel and Jura say no to the property tax, it could already be off the table. And with it the abolition of the imputed rental value.

In addition, the template, even in its current form, has a large price tag. With a mortgage interest rate of 1.5 percent, the loss of income for the federal government, cantons and municipalities amounts to 1.67 billion francs. And this despite an otherwise tense financial situation in the federal treasury. The imputed rental value has already failed at the ballot box twice.

So all the homeowners can’t be happy too soon. The present is already under the Christmas tree, but whether it can actually be unwrapped will only be decided on one of the coming voting Sundays.