Swiss Voters Reject Plan to End Tax Breaks for Foreign Companies -<br />ZURICH — Voters rejected plans to overhaul Switzerland’s corporate tax system, according to provisional results on Sunday.<br />Ueli Maurer, the Swiss finance minister, said the government now needed time to address with the cantons — or Swiss states — a situation<br />that business leaders have called a dangerous legal limbo.<br />In addition, many cantons have said they would decrease corporate tax rates for all<br />companies to reduce the fiscal burden and dissuade multinationals from leaving.<br />The results on Sunday showed that just over 59 percent of voters — who have the last word under the Swiss system of direct democracy — opposed the plans, which the country’s political<br />and business elite embraced under international pressure.<br />Switzerland has been criticized by the European Union<br />and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development over the special tax status that the cantons give foreign companies.<br />To offset the blow to companies, the government had proposed tax breaks on research<br />and development in Switzerland, profits from patents developed there, and deductions for excess company equity.<br />The government says such special-status companies employ 150,000 people and contribute half of the federal corporate taxes.
