How can we foster more female labour market participation in Switzerland? And how can income taxation contribute to this? In order to answer these questions, Austria’s income tax system with its child allowances and deductions will be looked at closer to understand, to what extent this can be applied to Switzerland. Thereby, it will be discussed how Switzerland currently manages its income taxation of married couples and what kind of child allowances and deductions are currently in place.
The tampon tax has become an on-going discussing topic. Support to repeal this tax has increased in the last years, with activists arguing that menstrual hygiene products should be classified as tax-exempt necessities, alongside other items such as food, tap water and medicine. This issue pertains to gender equality, affordability and women’s health. While the large majority of the countries around the world still tax menstrual hygiene products as non-essential goods, some countries are starting to lift or reduce the tax. In 2004, Kenya became a trailblazer when it was the first country in the world to repeal the tampon tax. Listen to this podcast to learn more on the topic, by discovering both sides of the argument, and understanding the implications following an amendment of the tax.
The history of tax is also one of conflict, danger and upheaval.The purpose of the state has always been to protect the population from internal and external dangers. And that is from where it derives its legitimacy. Now it is in the nature of things that wars and other crises devour enormous financial resources that have to be borne by the general public. In such moments, rulers often get creative and temporarily introduce new measures to meet the costs arising from war or the fight against epidemics. In many cases, however, these new forms of taxation remain in place and are not, after all, of such a provisional nature as once claimed. In this piece, I will discuss the longevity of provisional taxation and use the Swiss direct federal tax, which has its origins in the military tax of the First World War, as an illustration.
Podcast on the Abolishment of the Real Estate Acquisition Tax in the Czech Republic by Martin Husek
This podcast episode talks about the major public health issues of obesity and diabetes and what could be done to solve them. The main focus lies on the sin tax on sugary drinks, or sugar-sweetened beverages, which was introduced in the USA in Berkeley, California in 2014. It explores what a sin tax is in general and its mechanics, while then diving deeper into the benefits but also possible downfalls of this instrument when it […]
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