Penalty tax for large houses?
20.06.2011 
The Swiss people are demanding more and more space to live in. The federal government is weighing how to put the brakes on this development, with a tax on improved (constructed) areas. Even the Swiss National Council is addressing the issue of spatial planning. Certain politicians are already complaining that things are slowly "getting tighter" in Switzerland. The right wing puts the blame squarely on immigration; other parties put the focus on higher demands. The CVP is promoting the argument that the sharply increasing space needs of a growing residential population could be a major factor. The federal government is singing from the same hymnal, and is planning countermeasures. The Bafu (Swiss Environmental Office) is considering the introduction of what's called a "land use tax," which is another way of saying a new tax on utilized land. One study by the Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forestry, Snow and Landscape has come to the realization that the current tax plan features disincentives in terms of space consumption. Thus real estate is systematically being valued too low for tax purposes, which makes it worthwhile to build houses and real estate in general. According to experts, this is one reason why space consumption for housing purposes has been steadily on the rise.
The purpose of a land use tax now would be to reverse the tax incentives. The concept is based on the assumption that you impose a tax on all home owners, measured by the size of the improved parcel (including surrounding area). Those who need a lot of space would be penalized by tax; those who live modestly would benefit, by comparison. The hope is that by doing so, people would take a more moderate approach to living space again, and developers would tend to build upward instead of outward (for more on the topic of spatial planning, take a look at our current 
Illusion No. 20). Exactly how the details of the project would appear remains to be seen. It is clear that a land use tax can be considered a thoroughly valid concept for controlling land consumption. Even the head of the Swiss Federal Office for Spatial Planning views this as an interesting option in it, as they have already let it be known through the media. This tax could be a means to slowing down urban sprawl. This study is slated for review in the summer, so that the results can be passed on to the finance department. Evelyne Schlumpf, member of the Swiss Federal Council, intends to present her proposals pertaining to ecological tax reforms by the end of the year to the entire council.
Source: SOZ, June 12, 2011
Posted by: 
Claude Ginesta
Anteil / Share
">
RSS Blog Feed
Leave a Reply