those corporations "earn" that revenue inside the Alps solely as a matter of tax planning. this is one of the things that has authorities in Italy and Spain in particular poking around.



I have previously posted that I have not found Switzerland to be "racist" at all. there is certainly some truth to the statement that the Swiss distrust everybody, but they do so without bias. from what I have seen, folks who make an honest effort to "integrate" or at least are respectful of local customs and culture are all treated the same, regardless of race.

there is also some truth to the statement, though, that more could be done to encourage "integration".

While there ARE racists among the SVP/UDC people, I would NOT describe that party as a racist party. The other way round, the problem of their party in the Romandie is not so much their ideas but their mentality which is "bodeständig tüütsch-schwiizerisch". Which in fact also is the reason for their problems in most cities in the "Alémanique". There is a particular party in Geneva, the MCG, which sounds to be even to the right of the UDC/SVP and proves that rightwing-ideas in the Romandie have a market.

The bad results they got in the Romandie would not have been so difficult for the SVP, had they not also got disastrous results in St. Gallen, Zürich, Aargau and other Cantons. Their party under Blocher during 30 years moved more and more to the right, and it looks as if they landed up in a kind of "overkill-position"

Interesting, I didn't know that Nestle, Roche, Novartis, ABB, Adecco, UBS,Credit Swiss, Swiss Re, Zurich Financial Services etc. were actually Spanish and Italian companies that have moved their headquarters to Switzerland for tax reasons.

I was actually taught French at school by a guy from Senegal who had won an award for being the best on French grammar. I think of several thousand people from across the French-speaking world who did that test there were only three who had zero errors and he was one of them. None of those three was French by the way.

Amazing to see that most of those UK/US spelling competitions for kids are usually won by children of Asian origin.

well, I certainly didn't intend this to be a pissing match about the Swiss economy...

...but you do realize that, in an effort to rebut the myth that the Swiss economy is centered around banking and chocolates, 4 of the firms you listed are in the finance industry and 1 of them started in large part as a chocolates company?



Italy and Spain (among others) are not upset about companies moving their HQ's to Switzerland, since HQ's don't generate the bulk of the employment opportunities, etc. what they're upset about is that hundreds of millions of Euros worth of products are manufactured and sold within their borders but taxed here in Switzerland, largely because of the way multinationals manage internal transfer pricing.

I don't there is any shame in Switzerland's rich history in banking and financial services. yes, there have been lapses in judgment and scandals, but that is no different than anywhere else in the world. I also don't think there is any shame in the way that Switzerland has marketed itself as a tax-efficient place to do business. and of course there is no shame in the country's chocolate industry.

Welcome to Switzerland! You ought to see how many registered oil and mining companies are out here, without the actual wells or mines being actually in Switzerland.

This is common for multinational corporations. There are approx. 60,000 Apple employees. But as for those who actually manufacture Apple products, 230,000 are at a company called Foxconn in China.

well, Switzerland chose wisely - tax revenue beats serving your citizens up for what is little more than slave-labor every day of the week.

Hence, Switzerland is the focus of LOTS of jealousy around the world.

Mind you, the Fortune 500 Global list is for publicly traded companies that are required to open their books. What does not make that list are private concerns that get to about the same scale. As for their actual size, nobody knows except for a few individuals in their accounting team and their government tax agent.

I never wanted to rebut the fact that Switzerland produces chocolate or is an important financial center. Btw Switzerland also produces watches.

It's actually true that international corporations move to Switzerland because they get these phantastic tax breaks. But this is an issue that doesn't concern the big Swiss companies, with the exception of Glencore and Xstrata. And there it's not Spain or Italy that loses out but some poor African state.

Taxes ? the taxes thing of course IS important, but a reason for many "multinationals" is the geographic location and the services available

Bank companiies ? Banks by nature deal with money. This means that they on a purely financial scale land up fairly high. But those financial figures are misleading. ABB and Swatch for example are more important for Switzerland than CS in quite many ways. Such statistics are crap

I can assure you that those huge tax breaks are being looked up VERY carefully as we speak by the new Vaud Government, and but other Cantons in the area. One Brazillian company only declared a minute portion of their profits last year and will not get away with it, I hope.

And pro-audio equipment (otherwise I'd have been unemployed the past 26 years).

Tom

In comparison, what you find in other countries is tragic; Governments merely playing the role of pimping out its citizens, decisions being made in favor of the highest bidders, graft and corruption, the population lost of trust in its government, they disown their governments and give up any sense of responsibility for their country, communities fall apart, and people's lives hang in the balance.

One can call Switzerland anachronistic. I don't care. It's because it's still one of the few places that still has its act together.

Very true - Switzerland is undoubtedly one of only a handful of countries that has any right to call itself a democracy. The US and EU member nations can only pretend these days. Almost nothing of import is ever put to a referendum in those countries (especially regarding the all important issues of the day such as financial services reform, deficit-reduction measures and pan-EU fiscal integration) whereas Switzerland generally treats its citizens as grownups at least in terms of offering referenda on important matters.

What is the point of declaring only a minute portion of their profit in case of a tax break??

Anyway, always nice to see that companies are being seduced to move to CH with huge tax breaks and being blamed in case they actually do so and on top of that have the nerve to actually claim the tax breaks.

Beyond tax breaks, there is the benefit of jurisdiction. Coporation X, conducting business in country Y, need not be answerable to the inquiries from the government of country Z.

Not really, the majority of them originated from Switzerland, have always had their HQ here and have either production or research in Switzerland, they are therefore proper Swiss corporations by most definitions. That a global 500 corporation can't have the bulk of its operations or most important market in Switzerland should be self-evident.

I would actually like to believe that my employer moved its HQ here because of taxes, but I fear the prime motivation was cheap (at the time oh so many years ago) real estate and the famous Swiss sense of privacy and discretion (which was an important driver for married dudes who had a hankering for flight attendants).