Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter
Keystone-SDA
The abolition of the imputed rental value for federal tax purposes is intended to reduce incentives for high private debt and simplify the tax system. On Friday Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter spoke on behalf of the government in favour of parliament’s proposal.
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Those in favour of changing the system criticise the current taxable imputed rental value as an unfair tax on income that does not exist. Nevertheless, numerous attempts to abolish the imputed rental value have failed in the past.
+ Will Switzerland finally do away with imputed rental-value tax on homeowners?
According to the government, the latest reform attempt is balanced. In contrast to previous approaches, which wanted to continue to allow a large number of tax deductions, the proposal now being put to the vote restricts the deductions for direct federal tax to a minimum, thereby also limiting the overall government revenue shortfall.
The consequences of the system change will depend on the interest rate level. In the current situation, the government anticipates a reduction in revenue for the federal government, cantons and municipalities of around CHF1.8 billion ($2.2 billion). From a mortgage interest rate level of around 3%, however, the estimates suggest that this would result in additional income for the public sector.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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