"Requirements such as quality, efficiency and productivity are ideal foundations for the use of innovative, digital systems. ABRA BI Portal Solution is the answer to the desire of SMEs to remain competitive in the future - and this with a financially justifiable effort" says Marzio Tomasetto.

Diverse partner network of ABRA Software AG

With Marzio Tomasetto, an experienced expert of the European IT scene is active in the DACH region. As managing director, he is also responsible for the development and support of the partner network in these regions. In addition to cooperation with consulting companies, the focus is on collaboration with a wide range of providers. "Our network is to be expanded significantly in the next few years," he explains. In addition to the ABRA BI Portal Solution, potential partners can expect an interesting partner program with interesting conditions.

ABRA BI portal technology developed for SMEs

The architecture of the BI landscape shapes usability. "Data is there, but it is not integrated or can only be compared manually with MS Excel," complain many business owners. With the ABRA BI Portal Solution, this can be used as a central entry point for the entire information procurement, where reports on finances, process and supply chains or on products, on customers and on suppliers are worked with uniformly throughout terminology, evaluations and data.

The web-based ABRA Business Intelligence Portal processes and displays tables and graphs as the customer requires. On any device connected to the Internet, data from a wide variety of data sources are organized and displayed in a structured manner. A wide variety of evaluations in the form of graphs, charts, KPI analyses and can be built up from all business or technically relevant data sources of the company and made available to the management for decision-making.

More information: www.abrasoftware.ch

The certificate of recognition awarded recognizes progressive conditions that promote compatibility. This includes best practices such as diversity, flexible working time models for men and women, and a compatibility culture that sends clear signals for a future-oriented working environment and a sustainable investment in employees. With a compatibility index of 79%, AWK performs 7% better overall than the average of the companies participating in the Prix BalanceZH and exceeds the average of its competitors' results in 15 out of 17 points in the study.

For AWK, the recognition as an employer associated with the certification is an important confirmation of the path taken and at the same time a great motivation to continue to responsibly exploit existing optimization potential. The focus is always on offering AWK employees an appreciative corporate culture, actively living equal opportunities, and specifically promoting the balance between private interests and professional requirements.

"We are thrilled. This award reflects the appreciation of our employees and clearly shows that our ongoing commitment to optimal working conditions is positively received. At the same time, our certification strengthens AWK's external perception as an attractive employer," comments Sandra Crouse, Human Resources Manager at AWK Group.

The Prix BalanceZH is a certification for employers with outstanding conditions for work-life balance. Since 2011, the Office for Equality has been awarding employers in the Canton of Zurich with the Prix BalanceZH. This time, Great Place to Work was involved as an independent partner and responsible for the methodology, implementation and evaluation of the award. This year, a total of seven companies received the Prix Balance d'encouragement for their courageous commitment.

Source: www.awk.ch

Global business travel volumes depend on various factors - internal on the one hand, external on the other. The general economic situation plays a role, as do the effects and uncertainties caused by terrorist attacks or the government shutdown in the USA at the turn of 2018/19.

In Switzerland, however, the government shutdown had no direct impact on business travel to the USA, as the figures for flights handled via AirPlus show. America - first and foremost New York - remains the most frequently traveled overseas destination for the Swiss on business. "In contrast, the shutdown is likely to have had a much greater impact on business travel ex U.S. or within the U.S., as government employees have largely had to forgo travel," explains Andy Stehrenberger, Managing Director of AirPlus in Switzerland.

The climate debate reaches business travel

In the current discussion about climate and environmental protection, aviation occupies an important place. This is not without consequences in the area of business travel. "Awareness of the issue of the environment has also increased significantly in the area of business travel. For example, we are registering increasing requests for climate reporting as well as conversions to e-billing and paperless processes. However, we are far from a flight boycott in business travel," Stehrenberger comments on an evaluation of the flight data of AirPlus customers. Average spending on rail travel has increased slightly, but this is only in line with the usual growth and not a result of the climate debate.

Low-cost carriers continue to lose importance

The share of low-cost airlines used for business continues to decline. While just under 10 percent of business travelers switched to a low-cost carrier in 2016 (9.9 percent), the figure was only 8.0 percent in 2018. However, this does not mean that flight costs have risen excessively: In 2018, companies paid an average of CHF 435 per European flight (2017: CHF 433) and CHF 2978 for intercontinental flights (2017: CHF 2932). While service classes remained virtually unchanged for European business (96.3 percent economy class, 3.4 percent business class), Swiss business travelers on intercontinental flights apparently paid slightly more attention to budget: 50.3 percent of travelers flew economy class (+1.6 percentage points year-over-year) and 48.6 percent traveled in business class (-1.4 percentage points year-over-year). First Class accounted for an unchanged share of 0.4 percent in 2018.

London and New York are top destinations for Swiss business travelers

74.6 percent of flights by business travelers from Switzerland are to a destination within Europe, 24.2 percent are intercontinental and 1.2 percent of flights handled via AirPlus are within Switzerland. The most frequently visited cities for business are London, ahead of Düsseldorf, Vienna and Berlin, and on long-haul routes New York, ahead of Shanghai, Singapore and Moscow. The most popular travel months are September to November - a total of 30.3 percent of business flights are completed in these three months. The least travel is in August (5.4 percent) and December (5.7 percent). Although the topic of bleisure - combining a business trip with a leisure stay - is attracting increasing attention, especially among the younger generation, Mondays remain the most popular travel day - 27 percent of airline tickets billed via AirPlus fall at the beginning of the week.

Share of women increases continuously

The proportion of women taking business trips is slowly but steadily increasing. Today, their share is 20.8 percent - in 2015, this figure was still below the 20 percent mark. There is hardly any discernible gender difference in terms of flight destination (domestic, Europe, intercontinental) - but there is when it comes to the choice of service classes. Women fly 83.9 percent in economy class (men 82 percent) and 15.8 percent in business class (men 17.5 percent). In general, it is noticeable that flights were booked earlier in 2018 than in the previous year (25.3 days before departure in 2018 vs. 24.5 days in 2017). Women book their flights an average of 27.6 days before departure, men only 24.5 days - but the values are converging. It is also encouraging that the proportion of canceled airline tickets is falling steadily and this year stands at 2.7 percent. Here, too, women are doing better than their male colleagues (2.8 percent) with a cancellation rate of 2.3 percent.

Source: AirPlus

The latest export sentiment survey by Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE) and the Credit Suisse Export Barometer confirm the downward trend in export sentiment seen in previous months. The reason for the slightly weakened expectations of SMEs is likely to be primarily the signs of a continued decline in industrial growth in Europe and particularly in Germany. Nevertheless, S-GE and Credit Suisse see the survey results and as a return to normality.

People are happy to pay for Swiss quality

Swiss SMEs cite "Swissness" as a key success factor in internationalization. A large proportion of the SMEs surveyed state that foreign customers value their quality and many are prepared to pay more for it. From the SMEs' point of view, the economic and political stability speak in favor of Switzerland as a business location. Sascha Jucker, economist at Credit Suisse, says: "Even if export expectations for Switzerland are weakening slightly, foreign demand for Swiss products remains intact. The worsening industrial sentiment in Europe is also offset by the somewhat more stable sentiment in the US. The outlook for Swiss exports therefore remains good."

"No need to worry"

Alberto Silini, Head of Consulting at Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE), states: "The weakening of export sentiment is no cause for concern. Rather, exporters now need to position themselves in the various markets for the long term. Swiss quality is a trump card they can play here."

By far the most important export market is and remains Germany in every respect, according to the current export barometer. This is where 81% of the SMEs surveyed want to export goods or services in the next six months. With 63% of the mentions, France is once again in second place, followed by the USA with 60% of the mentions. Austria comes in fourth with 55%, followed by Italy and China with 50% each. Seventh place goes to Spain with 47%, followed by Poland with 44%. As far as new export markets are concerned, 16% of the SMEs surveyed said they intended to become active in China for the first time in the next six months. India follows with 14%, 11% are targeting Japan and the United Arab Emirates, and 10% named Russia and Indonesia as new destinations. 9% of the SMEs want to export to South America or the Gulf States.

Source: Switzerland Global Enterprise

The Digital Economy Award was presented for the first time in 2018 awarded. It is organized by the ICT industry association swissICT and the specialist publisher Netzmedien AG and was created by a merger of the Swiss ICT Awards and the Swiss Digital Transformation Awards. The next award ceremony will take place on November 28, 2019 at the Hallenstadion in Zurich. As in the previous year, awards will be presented at this Digital Economy Award Night in the categories "Digital Innovation Of The Year", "The Next Global Hot Thing", "Digital Transformation Award" and "Highest Digital Quality". Within the "Highest Digital Quality" category, companies will be certified in the categories "Lean, Agile & Scrum", "Sourcing & Cloud", "Industrie 4.0", "User Experience", "Security" and "Open Source" in 2019.

The awards are presented by prominent expert juries. The following five presidents head the juries: Marcus Dauck (Ringier, CIO), Lukas Bär (Implement Consulting Group, Partner), Pascal Kaufmann (Starmind, Founder), Samy Liechti (Blacksocks, CEO & Founder) and Bramwell Kaltenrieder (Exploit Management Advisory, Professor of Digital Business and Innovation).

New heads in the jury

Peter Kummer, CIO of SBB, Robert Fritze from ti&m, Daniel Arber from eOperations and Lucas Nicolussi from the city of Uster are new members of the committee. Stefano Mallè from Microsoft will replace Marianne Janik on the jury.

There is also growth among the scouting partners. This year, Zurich-based blockchain hub Trust Square will report the most promising startups to the jury in the category "The Next Global Hot Thing". A new special award also promises a lot of excitement: SIX, in collaboration with the F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator, will select a winner in the "Fintech" category.

Who will be the successor to Auterion & Co.

Auterion was the big winner of the first event in the new format as award winner of "The Next Global Hot Thing" in front of more than 500 guests at the Hallenstadion in Zurich on November 21, 2018. The drone tech start-up builds complete operating systems and is working very successfully to establish them as the global standard for enterprise drones. Other winners included Amnesty International Switzerland, Modum.io, Ex Libris, SBB and Sonova.

With over 100 entries, top-class projects and companies were represented in all categories. In the newly established, professional jury process with new jurors, the applicants were extensively analyzed and evaluated.

How to submit?

You can register for a submission at the following link: www.digitaleconomyaward.ch. After a check, applicants receive another link by mail; directly to the entry form. With this, documentation, links and media files can be deposited. At the end of the entry process, enrollees will receive a confirmation by mail. It is not possible to submit for the award "The Next Global Hot Thing". Only candidates nominated by our scouting partners are eligible.

Robots work longer and more precisely on the assembly line than any human being - we have become accustomed to this. Meanwhile, adaptive algorithms are increasingly taking over more complex human tasks: Bots advise investors, intelligent assistants translate texts, Big Data is used for medical diagnosis, artificial intelligence (AI) supports decision-making and there are the first completely digitally created buildings, to name just a few developments. In high-level inputs on the topic of "World without work?", DEF2019 makes it clear that the focus is still on people. In order to make the best use of technological possibilities, people's working as well as thinking power and creativity are needed. Nevertheless, participants at DEF2019 will have to deal with topics such as cyberattack, AI, virtual reality, drones, Big Data and much more. However, social and political challenges for successful digitization will also be highlighted.

Rehabilitation robotics, masterminds and bots as customer advisors

On May 9, 2019, DEF2019 will once again bring proven and experienced experts from various fields onto the stage. New at Palais X-Tra on Zurich's Limmatplatz, one of the best-known cyborg researchers and ETH professor Robert Riener will use impressive examples to demonstrate the possibilities of the interface between humans and robotics and state-of-the-art cyborg technology. Memory trainer Markus Hofmann finds a super brain in every head, and according to Empa Director Prof. Dr. Gian-Luca Bona, modern materials research and Big Data can cross-fertilize each other. Switzerland's youngest member of the Council of States, Damian Müller (FDP, LU), looks at the political dimensions of digitization.

The world's leading drone experts and winners of the Digital Economy Award Dr. Lorenz Meier and Kevin Sartori share exciting episodes from their ten years of experience with their flying robots. The renowned banker Marianne Wildi wants to know whether robots are suitable as customer advisors. Gianna, an artificial intelligence-based customer interface presented by Tino Hellmund (Head Client Service Management SIX), fits the bill. His colleague Valerio Roncone doubts that traditional institutions will survive digital disruption, and Abacus thought leader Claudio Hintermann already knows the impact of the post-print era. Last but not least, hospital director Dr. Nicolas Krämer reports on a digital attack from the darkness on his hospital. Experts from the ETH start-up SnowHaze show how people sometimes negligently undermine data security in their everyday actions. As always, the well-known journalist and television presenter Stephan Klapproth will lead the day with humor.

Unique world of experience

As a novelty at DEF19, a unique world of experience conveys tangible examples and enables hands-on experience with new technologies. Developments and products from digitization are ready to be discovered: robots, sensory gloves, communicating with bots, experiencing the power of an exomuscle and much more. During the breaks and after the presentations, there will be enough space for networking with visitors and speakers as well as visiting the world of experience.

More information: www.digitaleconomicforum.ch

www.annanow.com is a novel and in Switzerland probably unique online mediation platform for express courier services, insurance and payment systems. Wholesalers and local businesses receive the fastest and cheapest delivery service in Switzerland on just one app. "In the future, anyone who can't deliver within 60 minutes will lose out," says Daniel Gradenegger, founder of Annanow.

Transport logistics according to the sharing principle

Here's how it works: Annanow determines the geographical availability of products for each order and enables local delivery via the crowd-based supply chain by activating transport users already available on site, such as cabs, bicycle couriers and private individuals. Distances become so short that deliveries can even be made on foot or by streetcar. "Thanks to Annanow's sharing principle, trades and wholesalers are given equal footing with Amazon and Alibaba in the battle for customers. In this way, we are securing the future of local businesses and their jobs," emphasizes Gradenegger.

Shorten routes, relieve roads

Annanow redefines the interaction between wholesalers and local businesses. The startup enables both retailers and couriers, consisting of regional road users, to deliver their orders as quickly as possible via the app. Anyone who orders a pack of dog food from Qualipet online or by phone will have it delivered locally via one of the 90 stores. In 10 to 60 minutes, the product is delivered by regional cab, bike couriers or private individuals. With the current system, each delivery goes via the retailer's central warehouse to the nearest post office, then to one of three Swiss parcel distribution centers and later to the post office at the delivery location. Deliveries are made the day after the order is placed. "This system is inefficient, causes empty runs, pollutes the Swiss road network and the environment," Gradenegger said.

The system of digitally linking retailers, courier services and end consumers massively shortens delivery routes, strengthens local businesses and secures jobs. "Today, customers expect immediate delivery, no matter where," says Gradenegger. "In the same breath, we relieve the Swiss road network and the environment by better bundling the transport of goods in InterCity logistics. Optimized utilization of the loading areas leads to fewer delivery trips. For shorter distances, the student on the way to university, for example, can take the bouquet of flowers from the station to the university hospital at the same time."

Socially insured and fair

Transport logistics is provided by two types of couriers. On the one hand, Annanow's couriers are delivery and cab companies. These partners receive delivery requests immediately and can greatly increase their capacity utilization through Annanow. On the other hand: Anyone who is older than 18 and has a work permit can register with Annanow as a "crowd courier." This allows any private individual to deliver a package on their way to work or home. The cooperation is regulated by a simple work contract. "In this way, we ensure that every courier is covered by social security and accident insurance," says Gradenegger. "We don't want a two-class society in which only part of the population is picked up by a social safety net."

Annanow - the next big thing?

Annanow's business model is based on the same principles as Uber, Airbnb, Facebook or Snap. The aforementioned startup companies use their technology for interactive networking via Internet platforms for the purpose of exchanging data, goods and services. Unlike traditional marketplaces such as shopping malls, platform business models have no tangible assets. Annanow, Uber, and Airbnb do not have vehicles, buildings, or warehouses and salesrooms. The assets are data, information and transactions. Founded in 2017, fintech company Annanow is an online intermediation platform for commerce in the digital marketplace, spearheading digital transformation in the delivery, insurance and payments business.

Read here the big interview with founder Daniel Gradenegger, published in ORGANISATOR 3/2019.

Under the motto "We present company stories and discuss realities", the Succession Bus initiative is directing its focus even more strongly on succession practice in 2019. How does succession work? What do I need to prepare? What is the value of my company? How do I find a successor for my company? Am I suited to be a successor? A team of experts answered these and other "burning" questions for SME owners in Zurich on April 4, 2019. Around 20 discussions were held. In the process, participants received information that is often not even thought of in the succession process, as one visitor confirmed. "You have to know and clearly define the goals in a succession plan," said succession expert Franziska Müller Tiberini. "Because letting go is a challenge". In addition to the individual discussions, insights into the succession stories of a wide range of Swiss companies were also provided by means of interviews and practical dialogs with entrepreneurs and experts.

In a video message, Zurich's Director of Economic Affairs Carmen Walker Späh welcomed the information initiative around business succession with these words: "SMEs are central to the economic success of our location. They provide jobs for many people and thus contribute to employment and prosperity. In order for them to be able to operate sustainably and in the long term on the market, founders and bosses must deal with their succession planning in good time. The succession bus offers appropriate advice."

The other stops on the 2019 follow-up bus tour are:

• May 9: Lucerne
• June 6: Weinfelden
• October 3: Winterthur
• November 7: Bern

www.nachfolgebus.ch

The Great Place to Work Institute awarded the "Best Employers in Switzerland" for the 11th time on April 4, 2019 in Zurich. For the ranking, all employees of the participating employers are asked anonymously for their opinion. All organizations with 20 or more employees can participate. Currently, around 200 companies in Switzerland are working with Great Place to Work to improve their workplace culture. Last year, 70 of them took all the steps to be compared with the "Best Employers". Following Google and Cisco in recent years, Sensirion now won for the first time among large companies. The 34 "Best Employers" include international companies such as DHL, LGT Bank, Hilti as well as Swiss companies such as Holle baby food, Schweizer Salinen AG or Klinik Gut from St. Moritz.

High pay alone does not generate motivation

The study results show what the foundations of a good workplace culture are: Credibility, respect and appreciation, fairness (including compensation) and team spirit. Also very important are pride in what the company does. When it comes to the perception of an appropriate salary, there are large differences between the companies (70% positive perception in excellent vs. 39% in non-excellent organizations). What is striking here is that perceived fairness is more important than the absolute wage level. Here, even companies without high wages often achieve a better perception than industries with above-average but unfairly perceived wages. "It is surprising but at the same time impressive to see how even companies with lower wages create motivating working conditions thanks to fairness and good prospects. High salaries in an environment characterized by envy and power struggles, on the other hand, create frustration and stagnation in many organizations," says Michael Hermann, CEO of Great Place to Work.

Innovations require mutual trust and listening

However, even more is needed to awaken creativity, respond quickly to changes and inspire employees to make a special commitment. The importance of a sense of purpose and trust within the company is often underestimated, according to another conclusion of the study. Yet it is precisely these points that prove to be decisive for a special commitment on the part of employees. They want to be involved in decisions so that they can fully support them. It is increasingly important to employees today to make a valuable contribution to society. "Not only do we always want to perform at our best, but it's important to us that people are at the center of this. After all, today's generation expects different things from their workplace than it used to. They want an exciting, progressive and supportive employer" says Christoph Loos, Managing Director of Hilti.

Only proud employees are good ambassadors of a company

Management plays a central role. Among the award-winning employers, 82% consider their managers to be competent. The Swiss average, however, is only 50%. This shows how differently the working environment is experienced. Thus, 88% of the employees at the award-winning employers would recommend their company to others. However, the average recommendation in Switzerland is just 59%.

Michael Hermann continues: "In the workplace, it's just like in a relationship: if there is a lack of recognition and trust in the long term, commitment often declines and alternatives become more interesting. The award-winning employers also manage to meet the expectations placed on the company. After more than two years of service, satisfaction remains stable at 80%, while non-award-winning employers disappoint more and more employees and satisfaction drops to 59%.

These are the best employers in Switzerland

Large companies (250+ employees)

• 1st place: Sensirion AG
• 2nd place: DHL Express (Switzerland) AG
• Rank 3: LGT Bank (Switzerland) Ltd.
• Rank 4: Hilti (Switzerland) AG
• Rank 5: Cembra Money Bank AG

Medium-sized companies (50-249 employees)

• 1st place: dbi services AG
• 2nd place: Mars Switzerland AG
• 3rd place: Red Hat GmbH
• 4th place: AbbVie AG
• 5th place: Festo AG

Small companies (20-49 employees)

• 1st place: Rackspace International GmbH
• 2nd place: SAS Institute AG
• 3rd place: Holle baby food AG
• Rank 4: Alnylam Switzerland GmbH
• Place 5: Trek Fahrrad GmbH

Health and social services

• 1st place: Domicil Bern AG
• 2nd place: Klinik Gut AG
• 3rd place: Senevita AG

Participation in the competition is possible for any organization. To receive an award, 20 or more employees are required and at least 7 out of 10 employees must rate the company positively. Companies that do not receive an award will not be listed.

The complete ranking lists are here.

IT is not completely new for Ricoh: With its core business of printing and print services, the company is already active in a peripheral area of IT services. Ricoh sees itself in the market as an IT service provider that provides end-to-end support to customers from installation to operation. The focus is not primarily on the function of the system integrator, but on the function of the IT full service provider. The company sees an important plus point in its existing customer base. Ricoh was already active in the IT environment with Print Services and knows the needs of its customers. According to Toni Fuchs, Head of IT & Digitization Services, Ricoh Schweiz AG, "The majority of customers want to reduce the number of partners and thus the number of interfaces. With our expanded IT service portfolio, we can be the central point of contact or the sole contact for IT issues for the customer."

Toni Fuchs sees another advantage in being able to serve internationally active customers with Swiss headquarters, since Ricoh itself is active worldwide, also in the IT sector. To implement this comprehensive service, Ricoh relies on its own expertise but also on cooperation with partners. In addition, the company can build on Ricoh resources in other countries, particularly in the areas of business intelligence and automation. These include its own software development teams in Italy and Spain and a Service Operations Center in Poland.

The initiative to offer a complete IT services portfolio on the Swiss market is based on Ricoh International's strategy. This strategy has already been implemented in numerous countries. Worldwide, Ricoh already generates more than 20 % of sales with IT and IT-related services.

More information on Ricoh IT Services at www.ricoh.ch/de/its

KPMG's "Swiss Tax Report 2019" compares the profit and income tax rates of 130 countries and all 26 cantons. The stagnation in ordinary corporate tax rates that has persisted for years continued last year - with two major exceptions: The cantons of Vaud and Basel-Stadt significantly reduced their profit tax rates: Vaud reduced its profit tax rate from 21.37% to 14.0%, Basel-Stadt from 22.18% to 13.04%.

Since the start of the observation period in 2007, the average ordinary profit tax rate for Swiss companies has fallen by 3.70 percentage points. Various fiscal reform efforts in Switzerland and abroad, such as the AHV tax proposal, will ensure significantly increased momentum in tax competition in the future, according to KPMG's assessment.

Vaud and Basel-Stadt as harbingers of increasing momentum

In the ranking of ordinary profit taxation, the cantons of Central Switzerland and the canton of Appenzell-Ausserrhoden continue to have the lowest tax rates. On average, corporate income taxes in Switzerland were only marginally reduced compared with last year, for example in the cantons of Zug, Schwyz and Glarus. Only the cantons of Vaud and Basel-Stadt have significantly reduced their tax rates this year. These two cantons also serve as harbingers of a dynamic that is likely to significantly change the Swiss corporate tax landscape in the near future.

In the long-term view since 2007, average profit taxation in Switzerland has fallen by 3.70 percentage points. The long-term trend, however, shows stagnating profit tax rates. Only the cantons of Graubünden (-12.94 percentage points), Schaffhausen (-7.02), Lucerne (-6.58) and Neuchâtel (-6.57) have steadily and significantly reduced their rates over the past years. In practice, the 12% mark has effectively established itself as the lower limit - the cantons can hardly afford lower ordinary rates for corporate profit taxes.

Ireland remains Europe's toughest location competitor

In a European comparison, there were hardly any changes in the top group of locations with very low tax rates. The cantons of central Switzerland were also very well positioned in this segment in 2018. Only the Channel Islands (0%) and some (southern) eastern European countries apply even lower ordinary profit tax rates. The largest location competitor in Europe remains Ireland with a profit tax rate of 12.5%.

Bringing up the rear in terms of tax attractiveness are various Northern, Western and Southern European countries - with Norway and Greece (-1 percentage point) as well as Sweden (-0.60) having moderately reduced their rates for 2019. France plans a gradual reduction in ordinary profit taxation to 25.0% by 2022. Compared with 2018, the ordinary profit tax rate was reduced by 2 percentage points to 31.0%.

The world's most attractive locations for tax purposes continue to include various offshore domiciles as well as Qatar, Hong Kong and Singapore. Switzerland continues to rank in the top third in a global fiscal comparison.

Central Switzerland also unrivaled attractive for natural persons

In terms of individual taxation, the cantons of central Switzerland also traditionally occupy the top positions in an intercantonal comparison - together with the canton of Appenzell-Innerrhoden. The cantons of western Switzerland, Ticino and the Mittelland again share the bottom of the rankings for individual taxation.

After a gentle downward trend, the average top income tax rate has settled just below the 34% mark over the past ten-plus years. The cantons of central Switzerland as well as Appenzell-Innerrhoden have topped the rankings since 2007. Overall, the cantons have only made minor tax rate cuts for individuals - with the exception of the canton of Uri, which has reduced its income tax rate from 33.0% in 2007 to 25.35% in the meantime (2019).

There has also been little movement since 2007 in the high-tax cantons, which show little variance in rates. Exceptions are Aargau and the cantons of Solothurn and Jura, which have made significant tax rate reductions over the long term. Individual taxation has remained unchanged for more than ten years in the cantons of Berne, Vaud and Geneva.

Switzerland in the European midfield for individual taxation

In a continental comparison, (southern) eastern European countries continue to have the lowest tax rates for top incomes - partly due to flat-rate tax systems. The majority of Swiss cantons are in the European midfield in terms of top income tax rates. The Western European and Scandinavian countries continue to have particularly high income tax rates.

A global comparison of income tax rates paints a slightly mixed picture: While the well-known offshore domiciles and a few Middle Eastern countries continue to forego income taxes altogether, countries such as South Africa, Australia, China and Japan have very high top tax rates.

In the long term (2007-2019), the Central and Eastern European countries stand out in particular with their tax rate cuts for top incomes: Hungary has reduced its rate by 21 percentage points since 2007, Bulgaria by 14 and the Czech Republic by 10. This contrasts with the Western European countries, some of whose tax rates have risen significantly in the last ten-plus years - most sharply in Iceland from 35.70% (2007) to 46.24% today.

Source: KPMG

"Inquiries have continued to increase over the past year. This shows how important the topic of work-life balance is," said Corinne Indermaur, Managing Director of the Family Platform Eastern Switzerland FPO. Most of the approximately 100 personal consultations with employees of member companies dealt with aspects of childcare. The topic of care for the elderly, for which FPO also offers support, is becoming increasingly important. This offer is to be publicized even more in the future.

Management of the family platform increased

At the general meeting, members approved the annual report, accounts and budget. They also approved the change in membership fees: municipalities now fall into the same category as other employers. For associations, the category "Supporter" was also created. In order to strengthen the impact of the family platform, a lot of energy will be invested in the acquisition of new members in the coming years. Association president Christof Stürm therefore proposed to increase the management from 40 to 50 full-time positions for the next two years. In view of the association's capital, the financial scope for this is available. The members followed the proposal.

Survey shows potential

Corinne Indermaur emphasized that the search for new members has started successfully. Several new member companies have already joined in the first quarter of 2019: The more than 100 member organizations currently have over 50,000 employees who can benefit from FPO consulting. She is also optimistic that she will be able to decisively advance the cooperations with the cantons of Graubünden and Schaffhausen in the course of the year. In order to gain deeper insights into the family-friendliness of companies in eastern Switzerland and to be able to respond even better to needs, a survey on the subject of paternity leave was carried out last year, in which around 170 companies from eastern Switzerland took part: it showed that paternity leave is granted in the vast majority of companies, although the number of vacation days varies greatly between companies.

Outreach for families

The members of the FPO then took the opportunity to look around the recently opened headquarters of Lidl Switzerland in Weinfelden. Gisela Schoch, Department Manager Employee Engagement at Lidl, showed, among other things, how the discounter is committed to the compatibility of work and family by means of a parent-child office equipped with toys. Lidl, which is itself a member of the FPO, is also one of the pioneers when it comes to paternity leave, offering two weeks.

More information: www.familienplattform-ostschweiz.ch