Switzerland Pushes for VAT Increase to Fund Pension Boost (1)

Switzerland’s government said it would favor increasing the country’s value-added tax over raising wage contributions to fund a recently decided increase in pensions.

Given a calculation error in determining the national pension fund’s deficit, an additional 3 billion francs ($3.5 billion) are available in 2033. This means that a boost of VAT is sufficient while deductions from workers’ salaries can be left unchanged, the executive said in a statement on Wednesday. A competing plan had envisioned raising both.

“The 13th pension payment will be made for the first time in 2026,” Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider said in ...