The Government Council of Basel-Stadt submitted to the Grand Council of the Canton of Basel-Stadt a bill for the partial revision of the Tax Act with a view to introducing a procedure for the direct deduction of taxes from wages (wage deduction procedure) at cantonal level. The Grand Council did not agree to the proposal.
In March 2017, the Government Council of the Canton of Basel-Stadt submitted a bill to the Grand Council for the partial revision of the tax law. The aim was to introduce a procedure for deducting taxes from employees' wages. This was intended to implement the motion submitted by the Grand Council against the will of the Government Council by Rudolf Rechsteiner (SP) regarding "automated voluntary direct deduction of direct taxes from wages" (see also our contribution of 11 May 2017).
The proposal for the wage deduction procedure (business number 17.0347) was first discussed by the Economic and Tax Commission (WAK) of the Grand Council of the Canton of Basel-Stadt and its majority requested the Grand Council to enter into the business, i.e. to approve the proposed resolution (the WAK's advice and the Government Council's draft bill for the partial revision of the cantonal tax law of 15 March 2017 can be downloaded here).
The Grand Council did not follow the recommendation of the WAK at its meeting on 6 December 2017 and (narrowly) did not agree to the proposal by 47 votes to 48 with 2 abstentions. The business of 17,0347 is thus settled.
Cf. the minutes of the decision of the Grand Council of 6 December 2017 (point 5).
