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With fantastic transportation infrastructure, clean environment and a hub for innovation, the Zug canton is an attractive region for establishing a Swiss residence, as well as a popular location for doing business. Zug offers a wide range of business sectors, focused in this popular Swiss canton, which makes it an attractive location for new entrepreneurs who want to invest in business ventures and take advantage of the favorable tax system and business-friendly environment.

In Switzerland, the business culture it is above all other personal relations. The Swiss business values refer to punctuality, sobriety, responsibility honesty and hard work. This is why is important to know the business culture before starting a new business relationship with a Swiss client or partner.  Here are the top 10 things to know about Swiss business culture.

Banks are part of Swiss culture since 16^th century, therefore there is no surprise that the Swiss banking system is one of the biggest strengths of the country. The Swiss banking system is different than other European banking systems because it is based on the universal banking concept. This concept refers to offering all the banking services both commercial and investment. This is so that the risk to be spread over a greater number of business and customers.

On the 1st of June, the Federal Steering Committee announced its proposals for a new tax regulation 2017, i.e. the Swiss corporate tax reform, that will implement a standard corporate tax rate of approximately 12 percent, without any significant financial losses for the canton of Zug, municipalities, companies and private individuals so that the tax burden will not be shifted to private tax payers. This aims to make Switzerland’s tax system acceptable again on an international level and to revoke the tax privileges granted to certain internationally operating companies.

The Head of the Department of Finance, Heinz Tännler, supports the proposals by the Federal Steering Committee for the new tax regulation 2017. He feels encouraged regarding the cornerstones for Zug’s corporate tax law reform.

With a stable economy, Swiss unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the world, standing at 3.7 percent in January 2017, with average unemployment typically lower in German-speaking Switzerland (3.1 percent) than in French and Italian-speaking Swiss cantons (5 percent).

More than 60% of the people prefer to rent a house in Switzerland; therefore buying a house is not a common thing. Oddly enough, in some of the most popular Swiss cities such as Zurich, Basel or Geneva, there are even less property owners. The number of property owners is larger in rural areas an lower in popular cities, also due to the constant growth rate of urban population in Switzerland over the last years. Thus, pressure on limited available houses has also increased.

The legal structure of a Swiss Holding Company is meant to allow the said company to manage financial investments for long for the long run in other affiliated companies. For a company to be classified as a Swiss holding company under the provisions of the Swiss legislation, it is required that the respective company doesn’t conduct business activities in Switzerland. 

In order to understand the Swiss tax system, it is important to understand that due to its federal structure (26 cantons and approximately 2,300 municipalities) there is no uniform taxation system. Depending on the tax type, some are levied exclusively at a federal level such Value Added Tax (VAT), and some at both levels: federal and cantonal such as income tax.
Here is a list with 10 Swiss cantons with the lowest taxes in Switzerland and also around the world.

Switzerland has become a preferred destination for investors due to its taxation system, geographic and political position, low inflation, low unemployment rate as well as its competitive business environment.