The SVP’s health insurance initiative rejected by the Commission
Zurich Cantonal Council
The SVP’s health insurance initiative is rejected by the commission
The Zurich Cantonal Council should reject the SVP’s justice initiative
The SVP calls for married couples to be able to deduct 7200 francs for health insurance premiums in their tax returns. Today the limit is 5200 francs. For single people, the deduction is to increase from 2600 to 3600 francs. With the increase of the deduction by 1000 francs per adult, the burden on the middle class is to be relieved.
The Zurich municipalities and the canton would lose taxes of 150 million francs each, the Commission for Economy and Taxes (WAK) notes after its consultation. Due to the financial challenges in the next few years, such loss of earnings is not justifiable.
The majority is in favor of the counter-proposal
The commission therefore requests that the cantonal council reject the SVP initiative with a clear 11 to 4 votes, as it announced on Thursday. A majority, however, is in favor of the government council’s counter-proposal, which aims to “increase the maximum deductions moderately”. The maximum deduction would increase from 2600 to 2900 francs for single people and from 5200 to 5800 francs for married people.
With a taxable income between 80,000 and 120,000 francs, the counter-proposal model calculations would reduce the annual burden by 62 francs (single person) to 115 francs (married couple with two children). In the case of the municipalities and the canton, there would be tax losses of 45 million francs each.
The Cantonal Council will next decide on the SVP initiative and the counter-proposal. (sda)