Transitional solution after motor vehicle tax shock in Geneva
Published: Friday, Dec 13th 2024, 19:20
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After the shock of the drastic increase in motor vehicle tax in Geneva, owners of old cars can breathe a sigh of relief. The Geneva Grand Council amended the law for hardship cases on Friday.
The cantonal parliament unanimously passed a law on Friday, with some abstentions, which caps the increases until 2027. The increase may not exceed a doubling of the previous tax.
"This corrective bill is transitional law," emphasized Pierre Maudet, the State Councillor responsible for mobility. As the urgency clause has been adopted, this measure comes into force immediately. New bills will be sent to the people concerned in a few weeks.
Just under a month earlier, car owners had received some hefty bills for older vehicles. In total, the tax on 21,405 vehicles was at least doubled. The reason for these increases is a law that was approved in a referendum in March.
The new rules subject electric vehicles to taxation based on their weight. Vehicles with combustion engines, on the other hand, are taxed according to their CO2 emissions. An extreme example: for the owner of a 1998 Citroën family van, the bill rose from 297 francs to 2100 francs.
In view of the outcry over the massive increases, which had not been foreseen, the Grand Council had already postponed the payment deadline to the end of June 2025. In a transitional solution, motorhomes are now only taxed according to weight, while older vehicles are no longer subject to the originally planned surcharge.
The total cost of the temporary corrective measures is estimated at CHF 8.5 million with an annual tax revenue of CHF 120 million. The Grand Council now has three years to implement a new reform of the car tax.
©Keystone/SDA
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