Comment by tkubacki
1 year ago
Apart from the root issue here someone need to remind that Switzerland is the parasite of EU. Basically they have all EU rights and no obligations. EU should tax them heavily so that they contribute to solve e.g. EU transportation issues.
Why in Heaven's name should Switzerland be (heavily!?) taxed to solve EU transportation issues? Should Switzerland then tax the EU as well to pay for its own transportation?
Until today I believed that the world had solved these problems by charging transportation fees but you seem to have very different ideas.
> Basically they have all EU rights and no obligations.
Switzerland certainly doesn't have all EU rights. For instance, they are not applicable for any EU subsidies. They do not have any voting rights. They are exluded from certain scientific cooperation programs (e.g. the ESFRI). And the list goes on.
I do consider Switzerland doings as hostile to EU.
1) Switzerland gain on using EU transportation and free market but does not contribute fair fee to maintain and build it.
You can tax EU - we will see who will survive.
2) Switzerland does unfair tax competition
3) Switzerland helped hide EU citizens untaxed money (maybe still does)
4) Switzerland helps Russian oligarchs maintain their wealth and many other criminals all around the world.
5) Last but not least: If Switzerland does not care about Ukraine dying because it is ‘neutral’ and yet still wants safe borders, then I don’t fucking care about Switzerland well being.
1) EU gains on CH transportation just as well.
2) unfair in what way? Swiss taxes are lower than most EU countries, that's true. But not all: Income tax in e.g. Bulgaria is lower, company taxes are lower in Ireland. But even if it were the lowest, why is that unfair? Can't voters decide by themselves how much taxes they want to pay?
3) 15 years ago, yes. But then Switzerland had to give up banking secrecy, at least for EU and USA citizens.
4) This is your only point that is true
5) Switzerland, by its constitution, is neutral and can also not give military support to countries that are at war. The last part was not always like that, during WO2 neutral CH was still selling lots of weapons to Germany and making a fortune with that. After the war allied forces made CH pay recovery payments for that, so CH decided to amend their law to forbid selling weapons to countries at war. They stick to that law but do care about Ukraine, so they found a workaround: they sell weapons to e.g. Germany, who then can replace their own weapons and send them to Ukraine.
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What are you talking about, my marginal tax rate in Switzerland is 50%. When I last went to Prague, I changed trains at a station that prominently said it was financed by “friendship funds” from Switzerland. My taxes already are paying for Germany’s transport infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Swiss students couldn’t go on Erasmus for a year, because someone in Brussels threw a hissy fit.
I’m a fan of the EU, but let’s not pretend it’s not throwing its weight around, just like any other huge federal government.
These aren't EU transportation issues, these are GER transportation issues. The most powerful "parasitism" argument against CH is probably the tax arbitrage you can get from Zug/Lucerne, but a lot of that already happens inside EU itself with Luxembourg/Ireland/etc.
But yes, a fight over bigger contributions/more harmonization is inevitable within the next 10 years.