In its session of 12 September 2017, the National Council discussed the differences concerning the Money Laundering Act.
According to the Federal Council's business (15,069), the Federal Council wants to regulate money games in Switzerland in a coherent and up-to-date manner in a single law. To this end, on 21 October 2015 it adopted a dispatch with a corresponding draft law for the attention of parliament.
Differences between the two councils exist in particular in the taxation of winnings from money games. In contrast to the Federal Council and the National Council (cf. the minutes of 15 March 2017), the Legal Commission of the Council of States does not wish to generally exempt winnings from gambling from tax and, within the framework of the adjustment of the differences in the Money Gaming Act, requested its Council to stick to its model, according to which such winnings should be taxed from a tax-free amount of one million francs (cf. the media release of the Legal Commission of the Council of States of 28 March 2017).
In its session of 29 May 2017, the Council of States thereupon decided to maintain the taxation of profits above a tax-free amount of one million francs. This meant that there was still a difference with the National Council on this point (see our contribution of 29 May 2017).
On 26 June 2017, the Legal Affairs Committee of the National Council recommended that the National Council stick to its decision in the settlement of differences and that profits from major matches should no longer be taxed in future (media release of the Legal Affairs Committee of the National Council dated 26 June 2017). However, a minority of the commission could envisage approaching the Council of States and accepted the tax-free allowance of up to CHF 1 million, or even wanted to provide for it for winnings from online casino games. The Commission had also drawn up compromise proposals on a number of open points.
In its session of 12 September 2017, the National Council finally voted by 97 votes to 89 with 0 abstentions to adhere to its resolution (and thus to the recommendations of its Commission for Legal Affairs) and to no longer tax the winnings from major games in future. On this essential point, therefore, there is still a difference between the two parliamentary councils. The minutes of the National Council meeting of 12 September 2017 (also concerning the other differences) are available here.
On 13 September 2017, the Committee for Legal Affairs of the Council of States thereupon issued a recommendation to the Council of States, which, with regard to the difference in question, provides for an extension of the tax-free allowance of up to CHF 1 million also to winnings from online participation in casino games (analogous to the motion of the minority of the Committee for Legal Affairs of the National Council). The corresponding recommendations of the Committee for Legal Affairs of the Council of States can be found in the legislative banner for the attention of the Council of States as of 13 September 2017.
The remaining differences are thus to be discussed again by the Council of States in a next step. However, the current session programme of the Council of States does not yet indicate a corresponding date for discussion of the matter in the autumn session 2017.
