Sales tax
The goods turnover tax (WUSt) ( French impôt sur le chiffre d'affaires (ICHA) , Italian imposta sulla cifra d'affari (ICA) , Rhaeto-Romanic taglia d'esit ) was introduced on July 29, 1941 as a trade tax in Switzerland January 1995 replaced by VAT .
In contrast to today's VAT, the sales tax was levied as a single-phase tax on the delivery of goods, but not on services. In 1941 the tax rates were 2% or 3% depending on the goods. Over the years, the sales tax rates have continued to increase. In the last 'WUStjahr' (1994) the tax rate was 6.2%.
Compared to the current value added tax , the WUSt had the advantage that only wholesalers (large distributors), i.e. comparatively few companies, were taxable and the administrative effort was comparatively low. But because taxpayers could not claim input tax deduction under the WUSt, this led to a double burden on investments (also known as taxe occulte / non-reversible input tax), and thus to distortions of competition.
Web links
- Conrad Stockar: Sales tax (Wust). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
