Swiss to vote on basic income benefit

[Belsnickel]

(05-06-2016, 10:47 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: When I looked up their taxation rate, it begins at 31%, and tops out at 56%.  Seems kind of high to me.  This proposal would dramatically reduce tax revenue generated, by making the first $2600/mo., for an adult tax free income.  I wonder how long it would take the Swiss government to go from balanced/surplus budget, to fall into a deficit?

Definitely not the case. Looking over the Swiss FTA document on the Federal, Cantonal and Communal taxes I don't know where whatever you were looking at came up with those numbers. But the complexity of the tax system there is rather interesting and it would take me a lot of digging and time to really give good estimates. Definitely not as high as what they say there. It is much closer to the U.S. tax levels, which is higher than many perceive. When you look at the range in a combination of federal, state, and local income taxes you would be amazed at how much that changes.

As for it changing their revenue, yeah, it will, but likely not as much as you think. They also have items in place constitutionally that would not allow them to start relying on debt to make up the difference.