Support for scrapping Switzerland’s imputed rent, a fictional rent added to home owners’ taxable income, looks to be fading, reported SRF. A poll by GFS Bern for the public broadcaster SRG suggests that, had the vote been held in early September, 51% of respondents would have backed abolition. That is down sharply from earlier surveys, with rejection rising by 12 percentage points. The “no” camp now has the momentum.
The upcoming vote is aimed at allowing a tax on second homes, a precursor to abolishing imputed rent.
Headwinds come chiefly from tenants and from French-speaking Switzerland, where scepticism has hardened. German-speaking voters remain broadly supportive, while Italian-speaking Switzerland is split. Cantons set imputed rents, and they tend to be higher in some German-speaking cantons, so this could be a factor.
Age matters too: under-40s are drifting towards rejection, while older voters are sticking with the reform. This makes sense given the clear beneficiaries of the change would be those who have paid down their mortgages, a group that tend to be older on average – axing imputed rent means axing the tax deductibility of mortgage interest. Young people have more interest to deduct than older people who have paid off there mortgages.
Political polarisation has sharpened. On the left, tentative sympathy for the idea has turned into firm opposition. On the right, backing has continued to grow. But the arguments favouring abolition—chiefly that it would make property more affordable—are losing traction. Critics who warn that the wealthy would benefit most, or that tourism and mountain cantons would struggle to fill fiscal gaps, are gaining ground.
Even so, the contest is not settled. Respondents still reckon that the measure could scrape through, with an average expected “yes” vote of 51% on polling day, September 28th. Yet history suggests that Swiss initiatives with such slim leads in polls often falter at the ballot box due to a yes to no drift as polling day approaches.
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SRF article (in German)
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