A Swiss tourist has taken aim at Australia’s taxes for being too high, with too much money spent on the civil service and the government.
The travelling retiree, identified only as ‘Rudolf’, launched into his critique after being approached by TikTok vox-popper Jasky Singh on Murray Street Mall in Perth’s CBD.
He said that despite being rich in natural resources, with almost double the GDP of his home country, Australians still pay more tax for less benefits.
While varying between each Swiss Canton, the average Swiss worker paid about 18 per cent in income tax in 2022, compared to the Australian average of 26.9 per cent.
Rudolf said the Swiss government gets more done with the lower tax figure because it doesn’t have a ‘burgeoning bureaucracy’.
A Swiss retiree holidaying in Australia, Rudolf (pictured), has taken aim at Aussie governments for high tax rates despite being a ‘rich country’
Rudolf explained that the government cuts any jobs that are no longer needed to help limit the amount of spending.
‘Every 10 years, the government reviews how many jobs we have and really need – if they don’t (need them), we close the department,’ he said in the video.
The routine cuts come from the general Swiss scepticism of government, forcing it to achieve higher standards of governing or face being ousted.
‘We trust them to do certain things, but we watch them,’ Rudolf said.
He also noted the Australian government shouldn’t need to charge its citizens such high taxes as it has large industries that should instead drop tax rates.
‘Australia is a rich country, you have coal, gas, oil and wheat,’ he said.
‘You just have to get better management.’
The video attracted numerous comments from Australians who pined for Swiss tax rates.
‘We can do well to listen to what people do in the rest of the world. It’s an eye opener,’ one user wrote.
‘God how Australia needs this,’ a second wrote.
Aussies paid about nine per cent more in income tax than the Swiss in 2022, despite the European country having about half the GDP and a third of the population (stock image)
Some users were quick to add say it’s unfair to compare Switzerland to Australia as it is about 186 times smaller and about a third of the population.
Others said that while the Swiss pay less tax, the cost of goods and services are significantly more expensive.
‘The end result is less money in the pocket anyway,’ one posted.
While Switzerland was ranked as the best overall country in the world in 2023, Australia wasn’t far behind at number four.
The report from U.S. News and World Report took into account a set of 73 attributes related to categories such as entrepreneurship, heritage, quality of life and business.
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