City of Zurich presents ninth positive financial statements in a row
Published: Tuesday, Mar 26th 2024, 11:21
Updated At: Tuesday, Mar 26th 2024, 12:21
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Tax revenue is booming in the city of Zurich: the bottom line in the 2023 annual accounts is therefore a plus of CHF 231 million. The result was therefore CHF 571 million better than the budget had predicted.
For Chief Financial Officer Daniel Leupi (Greens), the tax revenues prove that the city of Zurich is "highly attractive": it is prospering as a residential and business location and is the engine of the metropolitan area, he told the media on Tuesday.
Last year, tax revenue reached the level that the financial plan had not envisaged until 2027, said Thomas Kuoni, Director of Financial Administration. In 2023, a total of CHF 3.748 billion was received - CHF 405.3 million more than in the previous year and CHF 381.1 million more than budgeted.
Significant increases were recorded in all tax groups, Leupi noted. In the case of natural persons, the increase is constant and can be attributed to population growth, among other things. In the case of companies, more taxes were received from previous years in particular: "In Zurich, the financial sector in particular did well during the coronavirus years."
This also had an impact on the intra-cantonal financial equalization. The city of Zurich had to pay CHF 552 million (plus CHF 200 million). This means that it paid in around CHF 122 million more than it received as central burden equalization. According to Kuoni, this is only the second time since 2012 that the city of Zurich has been a net contributor to the financial equalization scheme.
Call for a lower tax rate
The high revenues are once again prompting calls from the conservative parties for a reduction in tax rates. This debate will not take place with the bill, but with the budget, said Leupi.
However, the city council is unlikely to see any scope for this: "We need a balance between increasing investment expenditure and secure tax revenue," says Leupi. In 2023, 99.8 percent of the net investments of CHF 1.18 billion could have been self-financed. "The tax level is therefore right." The aim is to leave behind as little debt as possible.
The fact that the city was able to present its ninth positive financial statement in a row on Tuesday is due, among other things, to lower case numbers in the social welfare sector and lower personnel costs.
According to Leupi, the latter is due to the fact that around four percent of positions could not be filled. This is not a cost-cutting measure, but a consequence of the labor market. Leupi referred to the shortage of skilled workers and the wage level.
The total expenditure in the 2023 annual financial statements of the City of Zurich amounted to CHF 10.631 billion, with income of CHF 10.862 billion.
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