Deborah Kerr and hubby Peter Vierlei
are among the famous personalities who make
their home in the picturesque Alps.
of them sovereign states, roughly on the American model,
but each with its own tax structure. An actor, seeking
Swiss residence, first approaches the tax officials of each
canton in turn to see which offers the best deal. Noel Cow
ard, for example,- made a deal with the Canton of Vaud
whereby he is taxed at 5 percent of the rentable value of
his property.
- All the deals are different, and all personal.
One top star, who asked to be numbered like his bank
account rather than named, told me: "The authorities
expect a certain amount of horse-trading. This means
that you have to have enough money to make it worth
while for them to come to terms, otherwise they will just
laugh in your face. ,
"They offer you a tax arrangement. You turn it down
as excessive. Eventually my own arrangement was ham
mered down to this: I pay in Swiss taxes a flat $2,000
a year, whether I make a million or nothing. The Ameri
can Government knows all about it, and doesn't like it,
but there is a tax agreement between the United States
and Switzerland, so as long as the deal satisfies the Swiss,
the U.S. is bound to respect it."
" Swiss Proud, British Furious
The system, happy as it is for the stars themselves, has
created some curious anomalies for the governments con
cerned. The country least affected by it, Britain, is f uri-
ous about it. The country least flattered, Switzerland,
preens itself .with pride at the system.
The loss to America is considerable. At a rough esti
mate, the gross annual income of Alfred Hitchcock, Wil
liam Holden, Yul Brynner, and the Mel Ferrers alone is
in the neighborhood of $4,000,000. The income of the
entire American movie colony in Switzerland is almost
incalculable, certainly running into nine figures. The
situation has attracted the attention of the Kennedy Ad
ministration, and one of these days the Government may
put a plug in this tax drain.
England has watched the departure of such stars as
Richard Burton, Noel Coward, and Peter Ustinov in a
foaming froth of patriotic anger. All three have long
since ceased to be strictly British stars. The bulk of their
income is American, and the loss falls on the American
rather than the British taxpayer, but the stars have to
endure heavy attacks in the British press.
Peter Ustinov replies, "By the logic of the English
papers, every British ambassador is a traitor for living
abroad. -So is Somerset Maugham. I am going to Swit
zerland," he adds gloomily, "because I work better there. r
In Switzerland there is nothing else to do."
And Noel Coward says simply, "It was either Switzer
land or bankruptcy for me."
Neither of these remarks indicates any burning love
for the adopted country. The fact is that, although Lau
sanne is very proud of its Hollywood colony, the colony
(Continued on page 12)
f ink
Switzerland is a wonderful place to live especially for tax purposes
family Widely, May 7, INI