The consequences of FABI
The Yes vote for the financing of public transport has tax consequences for employees with a company car.
Yes! Swiss people voted and with it agreed with the fact that the public transport is to be expanded. This will, inter alia be financed through higher tax revenues. These in turn are generated by limiting the travel costs to get to work.
So far so good and so well known. But what does this mean for employees who are allowed to use their company car for travelling? For long routes that means a higher taxable income and thus higher taxes.
Here's a little example:
Hans travels 45 km between work and home. For this he is allowed to use the company car financed by the employer. This is a "goodie" that has to be evaluated: 45 km x 2 trips per day x 240 working days = 21,600 kilometers à CHF -.70 = CHF 15'120. Actually, the same calculation can be made for the travel expenses. But because this is limited now, the calculation is CHF 15'120 travel expenses - limited to CHF 3'000 = deduction of CHF 3'000. This means CHF 12'120 remain as income and will be taxed in the future.
This is expected to be on 1 January 2016 at the federal tax. The cantons have yet to decide whether they want to take over the limitation or implement another solution.
By the way, the argument that "we, after all, already settle a private part of the company car on the wage" is not valid because the lump-sum just covers purely private trips but not the travel to work.
Conclusion: It is necessary to examine whether the current arrangements still do make sense. In addition, it's worth to maintain a list of days on which no commute incurred. This is the case for example at home office days or field workers who travel from home.