Government wants to act after motor vehicle tax shock in Geneva
Published: Thursday, Nov 21st 2024, 11:40
Back to Live Feed
The cantonal government is reacting to the massive increase in motor vehicle tax for old cars in Geneva. The State Council wants to work on solutions with the Grand Council on Thursday and Friday.
This is what the President of the Cantonal Government Nathalie Fontanet (FDP) said on Wednesday evening on the news program on French-speaking Swiss television RTS. In the canton of Geneva, some owners of old vehicles must have recently suffered a shock when they received their motor vehicle tax bill for 2025. For some, the bill will rise by over 500 percent.
Tax according to environmental impact
The reason for the drastic increase is a cantonal law that was approved in a referendum last March. It was a counter-proposal to an SVP initiative that had called for vehicle tax to be halved. The new law provides for a tax based on CO2 emissions to encourage the purchase of more environmentally friendly vehicles.
"I can't hide the fact that the State Council is extremely concerned," Fontanet told RTS. If you look at the concrete effects of this law today, you come to the conclusion that the situation is untenable. The State Council met on Wednesday to find solutions, continued the President of the Government.
A motion from the ranks of the FDP calls for a staggered increase over several years. The Libertés et Justice sociale (LJS) movement called for a revised law that stipulates a maximum rate of tax increase. Finally, the third point is to find concrete solutions for people who are currently unable to bear the tax increase financially, Fontanet continued.
The Geneva section of the Touring Club Switzerland (TCS) recently showed in a sample calculation that the tax on a petrol-powered VW Polo from 2001 would rise from 210 francs to 750 francs. This amount is made up of the annual tax of 120 francs and a CO2 surcharge of 630 francs. For the owner of a Citroën family van from 1998, the bill even rises from 297 francs to 2100 francs, according to TCS.
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic