Why invest in Switzerland?

Switzerland has become a preferred destination for investors due to its taxation system, geographic and political position, low inflation, highly skilled professionals as well as its competitive business environment. The economic stability of Switzerland is one of the most known facts about this country.

Switzerland is an attractive business center for the multinational companies, due to its business model, that aims to provide the ideal framework for the foreign investors. As a result of this, about 30% of the world’s biggest brands have offices in this country. In fact, 15 Fortune 500 Companies such as Glencore International, Nestle, Novartis, Roche Group or ABB have the headquarters in Switzerland.

The political neutrality of Switzerlandand and its geographic position

Though Switzerland has never joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization nor the European Union, it often acts as a mediator between countries on international political matters. Although it is not a member of the European Union, Switzerland is a member of the European Free Trade Association and also a member of the Schengen Area from 2008.  In order to prevent double taxation for the same item, Switzerland has signed Double Taxation Agreements with 55 countries so far. Switzerland has also agreed and signed 10 tax information exchange agreements.

Switzerland’s geographic position, in center of Europe, can be viewed also as an advantage by the investors who are interested in investing their assets in this country. Due to its infrastructure, Switzerland is considered an accessible country, with car access to more than 30 European countries. In fact, according to the Global Competitiveness Report from 2016-2017, Switzerland is the most competitive country in Europe and as competitive as Singapore and United States at a world-wide level.

Highly skilled professionals

The high level of education and skills makes Switzerland a country in which the foreign companies would want to invest in. The literacy rate in Switzerland is 99%, which makes this country the 6^th most literate in the world. As a result, many well-known foreign companies choose to relocate their offices and in some cases, also their employees to Switzerland. Over 22.7% of the population living in Switzerland do not have a Swiss passport.

Switzerland is focusing on having one of the best educational systems and having human resources as an alternative for its scarce natural resources. As such, ETH Zurich University is ranked as one of the best in the world and a leading university from the European continent.

The taxation system

Currently, in Switzerland there are approximately 6500 foreign investors that contribute to Switzerland GDP with more than 5 billion dollars yearly. Moreover these companies provide permanent jobs for almost 15000 Swiss citizens.

This is why the Swiss Government is interested in maintaining its tax status by creating a tax reform that will allow even more investors in the future, but will align in the same time with the international regulations.  

The Swiss law considers that the cantonal tax rate laws should have sovereignty over the federal ones. In such, in order to attract investors, Switzerland has provided the possibility for each canton to have its own tax breaks for the investment projects. Some of the lowest taxes rates are on Zug, Schwyz, Slon and Stans and start from 1.78%, while the highest are on Lausanne, Basel, Solothum, Neuchatel up to 9.96% (for a couple with two children).

Due to all above mentioned, Switzerland will remain the best investment destination for foreign investors interested in having a safe growth of their assets over the years.