Swiss Apartheid?

Alpine real estate

Katherine Mangu-Ward from the October 2009 issue

Looking for a low-tax environment to build your dream home? The Swiss canton of Obwalden has a deal for you. How does “a sunny location, with low noise emissions [and] good amenities,” sound? They’ll even throw in “an unrestricted view that cannot be built on.” One catch: You have to be extremely wealthy.

Three years ago, Obwalden voted itself a 1.8 percent local income tax rate and a 6.6 percent corporate tax rate. Although the move attracted many businesses, virtually all merely acquired a mailing address in the canton and failed to bolster the local economy.

In Switzerland, known worldwide as a tax haven, cantons compete to create the friendliest tax environment, so raising taxes isn’t a viable option. Instead, town fathers have decided to make previously restricted agricultural land available for construction. These “special living zones,” which boast lake and mountain views, will be available only to the tax-paying rich or to people who can promise to create jobs in the region. Not surprisingly, the plan has attracted criticism. “These special living zones are nothing less than a form of apartheid,” Moritz Leuenberger, Switzerland’s environment and transport minister, complained to the U.K. Guardian.

Obwalden Finance Director Hans Wallimann offered this defense: “Swiss Railways offers a first class with more comfort and more space. There’s also the second class where I have less space, but I pay half the amount. Is that so unfair?” 

Comments

Plant Immigration Rights Suppo|10.3.09 @ 11:29AM|#

Not that I agree with this idea but the rich probably would not be able to afford living there anyway.

What is with the new format? I think I prefer the old format frankly.

Ratko|10.25.09 @ 3:23AM|#

I like Swiss cheese ..and the new format.

Who wants to live around a bunch of rich people. I have nothing against the rich, I value them, just not their company or as neighbors generally speaking. What my neighbors do with, in, and around their homes does not interest me in the least and I expect the same consideration.

The wealthier the neighborhood the more the neighbors seem to have and/or assume they have right to dictate what you do with or on yours.

The Swiss can do whatever they please with heir's just keep that cheese coming this way.