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At the top of the ranking are still the brothers Jonas (55), Peter and Mathias Kamprad (from left), the Ikea heirs.
Thomas SchlittlerBusiness editor Sunday view
Opinions differ on this question: How well is Switzerland and its residents doing? The Federal Council is now providing additional material for this discussion.
Wealth is unequally distributed
An analysis of the “distribution of wealth in Switzerland”, which was quietly and secretly published by the state government in mid-December, comes to the following conclusion: In the period from 2005 to 2018, the wealth share of the richest 1 percent of the Swiss rose from 38 to 44 percent .
According to Marius Brülhart (55), economics professor at the University of Lausanne, wealth in Switzerland is extremely unequally distributed compared to other Western European countries. “Not even in the USA is the wealth concentration of the richest 1 percent as great as in this country,” says the man who has been researching the distribution of wealth for many years. The concentration of available assets in Switzerland – i.e. without pension fund assets – is more comparable to countries such as Brazil, Mexico or Russia.
Multiple reasons
According to Brülhart, there are many reasons why the wealth share of the super-rich has noticeably increased since 2005. “One reason might be the low interest rates. These were less of a problem for the super-rich than for the middle class, because their wealth consists primarily of stocks and real estate, the prices of which have risen sharply.”
The fact that inheritance tax for direct descendants has been abolished in many cantons in recent decades could also play a role.
Brülhart: “Every second franc of wealth comes from an inheritance.” In 1990, an inheritance tax of 4.3 centimes was due for each franc inherited. Today, on the other hand, only 1.6 centimes went to the state for every franc inherited. “Very wealthy family dynasties benefited the most from this.”
Different from canton to canton
However, the triumph of the super-rich is not the same throughout Switzerland. “Developments varied greatly in the cantons,” says the Federal Council’s report, which was drawn up by the Federal Tax Administration and the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). Wealth inequality is particularly pronounced in the cantons of Central Switzerland.
The average net wealth per taxable person shows how big the cantonal differences are now. In the cantons of Jura, Fribourg, Solothurn and Neuchâtel, this figure was less than CHF 200,000 in 2019. In three central Swiss cantons, on the other hand, the average net wealth per taxpayer in the same year was more than one million francs: in Zug, citizens own an average of 1.1 million francs, in Schwyz 1.3 million francs and in Nidwalden almost 1.5 million million francs.
In 2005, the gaps were even smaller. At that time, the average net wealth in Jura, Freiburg, Solothurn and Neuchâtel was between 112,000 and 155,000 francs, in Schwyz, Zug and Nidwalden between 471,000 and 729,000 francs. For Brülhart it is clear that the tax competition between the cantons has also benefited the wealthy. But that is not the central point for the prosperity researcher: “From the point of view of the Swiss population, the decisive question is whether this competition helps to attract the rich from abroad – or whether the cantons are stealing good taxpayers from each other.”
Brülhart and his team investigated this aspect for the canton of Lucerne. The result: International movers contributed about a sixth to the increase in the top 1 percent wealth share after the wealth tax was halved.
Income well distributed
In contrast to wealth, income is comparatively well distributed. The Federal Council’s prosperity report states: “Income inequality in Switzerland was below the European average.” “Redistribution in the form of state or state-regulated transfers” made a significant contribution to this.
In this regard, Brülhart finds the development of the median disposable equivalised income of particular interest – i.e. the income in relation to the number of people in a household. “This has steadily increased in working households since 2005. This is encouraging and contradicts the thesis that prosperity per capita in Switzerland has stagnated in recent years.”
This brings Brülhart back to the prosperity debate, in which not least the advantages and disadvantages of immigration are hotly debated. In connection with this controversy, critics like to point out that the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has grown less strongly in recent years than in other countries. For this reason, the situation of individual citizens has developed less favorably. The Federal Council’s new report now shows that this is only part of the truth.