Family Firms Say a Climate Inheritance Tax Hits Factories, Not Yachts

ZURICH - Owners of family firms told a business-club briefing that a 50 percent tax on estates above CHF 50 million would land on operating companies whose value sits in machines, not in listed shares. They said heirs would sell to foreign buyers to pay the bill. Juso said exemptions and payment plans could be written, and that the scare was the point of the no camp.

Banks sat quietly. They would earn fees on either outcome. They would rather not say that.

Climate by other means

Green politicians who are not Juso already worry that a lost tax will be sold as a lost climate. They are right to worry. Voters often buy that packing.