ME TIME
TAX RELIEF THAT MAKES SENSE
It seems like time is closing in where Swiss working families[1] can really experience
the benefits of their persistent push towards a more bearable family economy.
The Swiss Bundesrat, with a more or less political consensus, is going to vote
in favour of giving working families tax relieves for
sending their kids to Kinderkrippe.
The conservative and right wing party SVP is outraged, but the Bundesrat’s
majority has set the pace: They will make sure that the reform is set out in
life already in 2010!
It comes as no shock upon anyone who is interested in Swiss family politics that
SVP (Schweizerische Volkpartei) is totally against this reform and their immediate
reaction to this reform were:
Es geht nicht an, Eltern, die ihre Kinder ausser Haus geben, steuerlich zu
entlasten
und so faktisch die traditionellen Familien zu diskriminieren.[2]
The SVP accuses the other parties for discriminating traditional families[3].
The SVP is by all means a party who supports the traditional Swiss way of living
and is a huge resistor of giving working families any kind of economic help.
Not only because this new reform will overlook the traditional families but also
it goes against their fundamental political view on how children should be raised
and how the state should interefere in family life:
Kleinkinder benötigen zumindest eine feste Bezugperson damit ihre spätere
psycishce stabilität nicht gefährdet ist. Staatliche Institutionen
wie Kinderkrippen, Mittagtische usw. Können und sollen nicht die elterliche
Liebe und Fürsorge nicht ersetzen...Die familie bietet dafür die idealen
Voraussetzungen.[4]
I have used this quote in an earlier article ("Tradition
and reform" April 08)
but
it
seems
worthwhile
to
cite
it again since I find it to represent the core meaning of SVP’s view of
how a family should be organized. The bottom line is not the reform’s exclusion
of traditional families but rather that the State is giving families, whether
they are traditional or working families, tax relief for childcare. Yes, they
(SVP) can stretch themselves to supporting turnvereins or fuzballvereins - but
the party has always been a tireless preacher of parents sole responsibility
for their children’s upbringing: The parents chose to have children without
public interference and is therefore a private matter and so it should always
be untill the children enter Kindergarten years:
Wer Kinder hat, soll sie selber erziehen und nicht in einer Krippe geben.[5]
Switzerland has remained and will perhaps always remain a conservative country.
However this bill stands for change - where finally the politicians (who are
supporting this reform)[6] are showing great courage and are ready
to
practice what many of them have preached for such a long time.
Not all families
have grandmothers or grandfathers who can step in every time mom and dad have
to go to work. The politicians are admitting this by giving them this solidarity
bill:
Wir sind froh, dass sich der Bundesrat dazu durchgerungen hat. Damit
kann
endlich
Mittelstand entlastet werden....Mit der Reform löst der Bundesrat ein altes
verspreechen ein.[7]
So it makes sense then, at least for me, that a right wing conservative party
like SVP is always against social liberalistic family reforms. If they can‘t
even see the benefits of subsidizing Mittagtisch or sending children two years
in Kindergarten, how can one expect them to support tax relieves for parents
sending their kids to Kinderkrippe? There is at least a great logic to SVP political
actions.
So the tax relief reform for Swiss working families makes sense both ways, and
I am sure that for those who benefits from it – it makes total
sense.
Sources:
[1] Here: families where both parents work.
[2] Alain Hauert (SVP sprecher)quoted in the Tages Anzeiger, Friday May 22, 2009.
[3] Here: Only one breadwinner in the house.
[4] Quote from SVP Wahlplattform, http://www.svp.ch/index.html?&page_id=392&node=23&level=1&l=2,
p. 78.
[5] Tages-Anzeiger, Familien profitieren bald von neuen Steuerabzügen, Friday,
May 22, 2009.
[6] Political parties supporting the Bill: CVP, SP and FDP.
[7] Nationalrätin Lucrezia Meier-Schatz von die CVP, Tages-Anzieiger, Freitag,
May 22, 2009.
NEW IN JUNE:
Learning
from our kids – adapting to a new environment
Swiss
German, French, Italian or Romansh?
Do
you speak - sprechen Sie - parlez-vous - schwätzt du…?
Tax
relief that makes sense
Cesarean
Section in child birth
Walking
in Memphis
Time
for a fine wine
Summer
camps 2009
Camping
with kids
Find
a babysitter