Tax rate falls by eight percentage points in the canton of Schaffhausen
Published: Monday, Nov 20th 2023, 23:00
Updated At: Monday, Nov 20th 2023, 23:03
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Taxpayers in Schaffhausen will see their taxes reduced in 2024: The Cantonal Council reduced the rate by eight percentage points on Monday as part of a lengthy budget debate.
The tax rate for natural persons will therefore be 81 percentage points in 2024. It is currently officially set at 91 percent, but the additional, temporary coronavirus reduction of two percent is still active until the end of next year.
The decision to make a surprisingly significant reduction in the tax rate was extremely close. It required the casting vote of Council President Diego Faccani (FDP).
Tug-of-war over the tax rate
This was preceded by a real tug-of-war over the tax rate. Parts of the FDP wanted to reduce the rate by ten percentage points, the SVP by eight. They justified this by saying that the canton was "swimming in money". It was therefore appropriate to give something back to the taxpayers.
Following its deliberations, the Audit Committee (GPK) considered a reduction of four percentage points to be appropriate. In view of the existing reserves, the EPP-GLP parliamentary group was also in favor of an increase, but only a moderate one of two percentage points.
Late on Monday evening, the government and subsequently the SP also backed this two percent proposal, both of which had previously wanted to keep the tax rate unchanged. The Greens maintained their stance of not changing the tax rate in view of the challenges ahead.
While Schaffhausen residents will benefit from a lower tax rate in 2024, the rate for companies will remain unchanged. The Cantonal Council agreed with the Government Council's proposal to leave it unchanged at 98%.
The plus is getting smaller
The Government Council's budget envisaged a plus of CHF 28.3 million on expenditure of CHF 954 million. This good result is due in particular to the fact that two previously formed financial policy reserves of CHF 70 million were released, as Head of Finance Cornelia Stamm Hurter (SVP) explained at the start of the budget debate on Monday morning.
The Cantonal Council slightly worsened the budget in its deliberations, which lasted around eleven hours. At the request of the GPK, it cut various positions and expenditure items. However, the reduction in the tax rate resulted in CHF 20.8 million less revenue. In the end, the surplus in the 2024 budget fell to around CHF 12.3 million.
After more than eleven hours of debate, the Cantonal Council approved the 2024 budget by 37 votes to 21. The no votes came from the SP and the Greens.
More money for staff
The salary measures for staff proposed by the Government Council remained undisputed in principle. The wage bill will be increased by two percent. One percent will be used for individual wage adjustments and a further one percent to compensate for inflation.
By 51 votes to 4, the wage bill for police officers, teachers, nursing staff and IT specialists was also increased by three percent for a maximum of four years. The salaries of these occupational groups in Schaffhausen are currently "significantly below the average".
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