Ralph Hamers moves to a Swiss tax haven

The new head of the big Swiss bank, Ralph Hamers, is not moving near the UBS headquarters in Zurich. Instead, he settles in a low-tax canton.

Ralph Hamers it is Zug by choice. At least the new head of UBS has settled there, as can be seen in the Swiss commercial register.

This was first noticed by the “Tages-Anzeiger” (Paid item). A spokesperson for UBS did not want to tell the paper that it was a private matter of Hamer.

Maximum tax rate as a problem

The newly arrived Dutchman is not the first UBS banker to live in Zug instead of Zurich: his predecessor, Sergio Ermotti, he kept an apartment in Zug as well as his residence in Montagnola, a small town overlooking Lake Lugano.

This has consequences not only for the career path but also for taxation. According to the “Tages-Anzeiger”, the maximum tax rate which is probably relevant for Hamers in Zug is 22.4 percent, which is significantly more attractive than 40 percent in Zurich.

Fast in the work

However, the move to a tax haven hasn’t happened to other financial industry heavyweights. So said the president of UBS Axel Weber He told the “Handelszeitung” after moving from Frankfurt in 2012 that he found an apartment in the city center of Zurich: “I don’t even want to live on the Zürichberg, but centrally located, so I can get to the opera quickly.”

President of Swiss Re Walter Kielholz In 2007, when he was still president of Credit Suisse, he answered a question from “Sonntagsblick” if he was considering moving from the city of Zurich to the highly efficient Freienbach or Wollerau: “Is this a rhetorical question? (…) What should I do on a wet and shady slope? “

CEOs tend to oases

Former UBS CEOs Oswald Grübel and the now deceased Marcel Ospel Both settled in the tax haven of Wollerau in the canton of Schwyz on the “damp and shady slope”. Weber’s predecessor, Kaspar Villiger, he only moved to Zug after leaving UBS and previously lived in Muri near Bern.