We were again swamped with documentation in Switzerland as we were again allowed to vote. Voting occurs often in our little country, having a system of perfect democracy although I gave up voting some time ago. I no longer have the interest or actually understanding for the content of the various subjects. I even threw the hundreds of papier documets for this vote into the garbage when it arrived. My mother-in-law always said they do what they want to in any case, and now I am approaching the age when she made his statement, I feel the same.

I do know what it was about mainly. This time we could decide about something to do with cantonal property taxes on second homes

“If you own a property and use it yourself, you must pay income tax on what is known as the imputed rental value (Eigenmietwert). In return, you can deduct your mortgage interest and maintenance costs from your taxable income. Parliament has passed an amendment to the law that abolishes the taxation of the imputed rental value and restricts the options for making deductions. This applies to both main homes and second homes. At the same time, Parliament has passed an amendment to the Constitution that allows the cantons to introduce a special property tax on second homes.”

It was accepted. I suppose it saves me studying about how to complete my tax form, although I give it to a guy to do it for me.

Another decision was for introduing an online proof when voting on your computer, telephone, iPad etc. etc. Here there were many against it due to problems which could arise. The official explanation:

“If you want to order or apply for something online, you may have to prove your identity. With electronic proof of identity, the so-called e-ID, it will be possible to do this completely digitally. The e-ID works like a digital identity card, but currently there is no e-ID in Switzerland. Voters rejected its introduction in 2021, mainly because it was going to be issued by private companies.”

That is the official explanation. Personally I do not care, but I suppose it has its benefits. Again a tight decision but it was accepted.

There were many more various decisions to be established, but more local /kantonal decisions. I have no idea what, it just no longer interests me, I leave it to our local politicians – we have enough.

We poor Swiss have to make these decisions often. You just need an idea. bring to to paper and collect enough signatures to bring it to the vote. Democracy pure, although sometimes too much of a good thing.

Now I have bored you all enough, so will return to my normal vote free life and let the others worry about it. In three months we will probably be voting again for something which I will not understand.