BERN, Switzerland — Swiss billionaire Alfred Gantner is pushing for a more rigorous Swiss wealth tax on the wealthiest households after voters rejected a 50% inheritance tax on multimillionaires in a national referendum by a landslide. The Partners Group co-founder portrayed the move as a means to address what he refers to as dangerously rocketing inequality more efficiently than complex inheritance taxes, according to remarks published Monday, Dec. 1, 2025.
On Sunday, Swiss voters overwhelmingly turned down by about 78 percent a proposal to levy a 50% tax on inherited wealth above 50 million Swiss francs ($62 million) — in other words, the estate worth beyond the first 50 million such son would be subject to this additional inheritance tax –an idea promoted by the youth wing of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland for proceeds from that new tax go toward climate projects, according to provisional results reported by Reuters.
Gantner, co-founder of the private equity group Partners Group and one of Switzerland’s estimated 2,500 ultrarich taxpayers, said that “we need progressive wealth taxation,” the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported in an article shared by The Guardian.
HE brushes aside concerns ahead of a debate over a proposal to increase taxes on wealthy Americans (including Gantner) when they die, as Apple CEO Tim Cook appears at The Browse, a privately held event featuring incumbent billionaires among us. Scott signed an executive order last year aimed at pressuring legacy companies like Amazon and Facebook about their business decisions. He put out a model under which fortunes above 200 million francs would be taxed at 1 per cent, rising to 1.2 per cent at 500 million and 1.5 per cent at a billion francs, while dismissing inheritance taxes as too easy to game, according to details first reported by Reuters.
The new battlefield in the Swiss wealth tax fight
Unlike many jurisdictions that have abolished taxes on large fortunes, Switzerland currently taxes Swiss net wealth in every canton (assets worldwide minus debts), although rates vary sharply between low-tax cantons such as Zug and higher-tax Geneva, according to a recent overview of Swiss tax rules by PwC. Economists have long considered the country a laboratory for policies like these: A study last year on VoxEU estimated that wealth taxes are responsible for some 3.6% of total tax revenue in Switzerland — by far the highest share in the OECD — yet also cautioned that cantonal Swiss wealth tax regimes can be “leaky” both because they are imposed locally. Enforcement is relatively weak, according to analysis drawing on Swiss experience.
Those features have coincided with a steady rise in wealth concentration over the past four decades. Assets of the richest 1% of the population increased by almost 43% in value over the period 2015, according to a tax office report quoted by Swiss public broadcaster Swissinfo in 2019, while the bottom three-quarters made gains of less than 20%. This widened a “two-speed” society that researchers found had rippled out on a vast scale.
Voters continue to say no — but pressure is building.
Even as debates over a Swiss wealth tax heat up, Swiss voters have repeatedly rejected steeper levies on the rich. And in 2023, voters in the canton of Geneva rejected a “turbo” wealth tax for the richest 1% of residents. A separate referendum there approved cuts to cantonal income and wealth taxes from 2025 — all evidence of how difficult it is to sell tax increases, even in relatively left-leaning urban areas.
Sunday’s resounding rejection of a national inheritance tax — the proposal was defeated in every canton — fits that pattern, even as rising rents and health-insurance premiums are roiling domestic politics. In response, the federal government and business lobby made clear that a 50% tax on large inheritances could lead to an exodus of rich residents and a drain on the tax base through whistleblowing, fears consistent with academic research that shows badly designed wealth taxes can trigger both capital flight and aggressive avoidance.
For now, however, Gantner’s call for a stricter Swiss wealth tax faces an uphill climb in a country that recently voted down one of its most radical tax proposals in decades. The billionaire, who also backs a proposed treaty that would increase Switzerland’s economic links to the European Union and opposes another version that does not, is positioning himself as an unusual member of the ultrarich (who) believe people like him should pay more. Whether his call for a stronger Swiss wealth tax becomes a blueprint for change or just the latest instalment in an on-again, off-again national debate will depend on whether voters are willing to pay the political price of exacerbating inequality to preserve their low-tax society.
