Geneva voters turn down wealth tax increase for richest 1%

Highlights:

• Covid-era proposal to boost fiscal income rejected by 55%
• Swiss vote in direct democracy up to four times a year

Geneva voters rejected a "solidarity" tax hike for the richest 1% living in Switzerland's second-largest city.

The measure failed with 55.12% of people voting against, according to final government results published on Sunday. The plan to temporarily lift the wealth tax from 1% to 1.5% for individuals with assets worth more than 3 million francs ($3.4 million) – proposed by a coalition of leftist lawmakers, unions and activists during the pandemic – aimed to boost fiscal revenue.

The government of affluent Geneva had spoken out against the increase, saying tax proceeds were sufficient to deal with the social fallout from the Covid crisis. 

Geneva voters turn down wealth tax increase

Business groups had also warned that the city's richest inhabitants might move to neighbouring states with lower rates. This had happened in Norway, where a wealth-tax increase to between 1% and 1.1% – notably lower than that proposed in Geneva – spurred millionaires to leave the country. 

Cantonal wealth-tax data show more than 19,000 of Geneva's about 500,000 inhabitants reach the millionaire threshold. A smaller number, somewhere between 4,200 and 10,000, would have been affected by the proposal – roughly the top 1%.

In nationwide ballots held concurrently, the Swiss electorate is set to sign off on introducing the 15% OECD minimum tax for multinational corporations and officially setting the goal to become climate neutral by 2050.