A recent comparative study covering 178 countries considered the level of taxation and the complexity of fiscal regulations and tax law. Currently Switzerland ranks 15th in the world.

Switzerland is 15 months away from a vote on reducing the tax burden on corporations and corporate taxation on small and medium sized companies is matter of current public attention. In a recent study made by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the World Bank, the Maldives ranked first and Singapore second for favorable corporate tax rates.

Not that very many companies will rush to open a business in the Maldives, even if their tax rate were negative. But Singapore probably has a thing or two to teach Switzerland in matters of tax legislation, or at least so goes the thinking in Swiss political circles.
After all, they now own 5% of UBS.

The PwC study looked at both qualitative and quantitative elements:

the tax rate, the level of social charges, well as the complexity or opacity of the system, the number payments to make and the time required to dedicate to compliance were all considered.

Switzerland would have found itself 24th were it not for the points won for the simplicity of its system. Companies domiciled in Switzerland spend on average 63 hhours on their taxes against 76 in Ireland, 105 in England, 132 in France, and 360 in Italy.

the report concluded that to improve its fiscal attraction for companies, lowering taxes was not considered most important but rather simplifying and regrouping procedures for social charges and insurances. These of themselves require 15 separate payments as opposed to one single payment in Denmark or England.

Then of course there are the tax rates themselves. The average tax on profits in Switzerland (8.4%) is much more advantageous than in Ireland (14.2%). But the tax on work, on the other hand, via insurances and social charges paid by the employer, is much higher in Switzerland (17.2%) compared to Ireland (12.10%). The report made further suggestions for the lowering of taxes on vehicles and real-estate.

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