1. Paupers assisted by the public charity fund, and those who by reason of mental or physical infirmity are incapable of earning their subsistence, or who have not a sufficient fortune for the support of themselves and family.
2. Those rendered unfit through previous service.
3. Swiss citizens in foreign countries, if they are subject to a personal service or to an exemption tax for the same in place of domicile.
4. The railway and steamboat employés during the time when they are liable to the military service organized for the working of the railways and steamboats in time of war.
5. Policemen and the federal frontier guards.
This military tax consists in a personal tax of six francs, and of an additional tax on property and income; the amount exacted from any one tax-payer not to exceed 3000 francs per annum. The additional tax is one franc and a half for each one thousand francs of net fortune, and one franc and a half for each one hundred francs of net income. Net fortunes less than 1000 francs are exempt, and from the net income are to be deducted 600 francs. Net fortune is the personal and real property after deducting debts of record, chattels necessary for household, tools of trade, and agricultural implements. Real estate and improvements are assessed for this tax at three-fourths of their market value. In computing the property of a person for this tax, half of the fortune of the parents, or if not living, then of the grand-parents, is included, proportionately to the number of children or grandchildren, unless the father of the tax-payer shall himself perform military service or pay the exemption tax.
Net income embraces:
1. The earnings of an art, profession, trade, business, occupation, or employment. The expenses incurred to obtain these earnings are deducted, also necessary household expenses, and five per cent. of the capital invested in the business.
2. The product of annuities, pensions, and other similar revenues.
From the age of thirty-three to the completion of the military age, only one-half of the tax is exacted. The Federal Assembly has the right to increase the tax to double the amount for those years in which the greater part of the Élite troops are called into service. The military tax for Swiss citizens residing abroad is calculated every year by special rolls, and the persons advised by the officials of the Canton of their birth, if their address be known, otherwise by public advertisement. The tax for exemption is paid in the Canton where the tax-payer is domiciled when the rolls are prepared. Parents are responsible for the payment of the tax for their minor sons, and for those sons who, though of age, remain a part of the household. The period for prescription is five years for tax-payers present in the country, and ten years for those absent from the country. The Cantons are charged with making out the annual rolls and collecting the tax. By the end of January following the year of the tax the Cantons must remit to the proper federal official the half of the gross product collected. A portion of this is assigned by the Federal Assembly to the fund for military pensions. In each Canton there is a tribunal to pass upon appeals on the correctness of the rolls of tax-payers. All disputes arising as to the tax are referred to and decided by the Federal Council. With a view of insuring a uniform application of the law of military service, the Confederation reserves supreme supervision; and the ultimate decision upon all questions arising out of the operation of it, and likewise upon decrees relating to the imposition and collection of the tax, rests with it. The estimated receipts from this tax for the share of the Confederation are placed in the budget for 1889 at 1,330,000 francs. An eminent Swiss publicist, Dr. Dubs, in criticising this tax-law, asserts “that in many points it is equally irrational, and, in the construction of its details, leads moreover to further absurdities of all kinds, of which undoubtedly the claiming to tax those in foreign countries and the taxation of the heir’s possible expectations form the highest point.” He might have added that this tax, so far as levied upon incomes of persons liable to military service but exempted therefrom by reason of disability or other cause, partakes rather of the character of a law to raise revenue than as providing a penalty for the non-performance of military service. The failure to render such service on the part of one enjoying a specified income is not more heavily punished than the failure of one with less or no income. The operation of this tax has caused much complaint on the part of citizens of the United States “established” in Switzerland. Nearly all of the European states have concluded treaties with Switzerland, since the enactment of this “military tax-law,” bringing themselves within the conditions it prescribes for the exemption of their citizens “established” in Switzerland, from any personal service or any tax in lieu thereof.