Guest Blogs
Knowitall.ch often invites local experts in their field to contribute to their own blogs on our site. This means not only you will benefit from the useful recommendations that we make on our News pages, but you can also profit from some of the great advice and tips that these experts have to make on their favorite subjects. Whilst each of these bloggers has been recommended to us at some point during the evolution of Know-it-all passport and knowitall.ch, obviously we are not able to test out all the suggestions they make on their blogs, nor do we necessarily agree with all their opinions. So if you do find one of their tips useful (or not!), do let us know!
To make these blogs more accessible to you, we have now decided to group them altogether in one section, entitled Guest Blogs, accessible from our main menu bar. We will also post the most recent blogs on the home page of our site in the right hand column.
We are still building up this area of the site, and are looking for bloggers in a number of sections, including Your Home, Travel, and Leisure, so if you feel you have a useful contribution to make in either of these areas, and have the time to submit blog entries approximately every month, then please get in touch!
The International Link team consists of Elodie Gysler-Buchheim, Head of International Link and Laurine Chiarini, International Link Officer.
I have had the great pleasure of working with Laurine and Elodie on several occasions at International Link and their dedication and commitment is second to none. Their mission is an initiative created by the CVCI, (Chambre Vaudoise du Commerce et de l'Industrie), which aims to represent and support international entities of the canton of Vaud. International Link promote excellence generated and shared by companies, organizations and universities, thus helping to create a common strategy and convey a positive image for both local and global entities. Moreover, facilitating integration into the local economy and providing a platform for sharing experiences is a key part to their best practices.
Amongst all this, the International Link activities are intended for the following groups:
• Management of international entities
• Representatives and staff of international entities
• International employees
• Spouses of international employees
I was lucky enough to sit down with them and discuss their fabulous work, including the upcoming event, the Vaud International Business Award.
I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did!
By Nicole Booth, Forth Capital
The Finance Bill 2016 was presented to the Council of Ministers on 30th September 2015. The Bill does not contain any major changes to tax legislation, apart from a reduction in income tax for low income households. The main focus is on making electronic filing compulsory in order to prepare for the introduction of withholding tax from 2018.
The main changes affecting private clients are:
by Sara Dubler, www.haut-lac.ch
There are many ways to give your children and grandchildren a head start in life - from applying to the best nursery schools to helping them with their International Baccalaureate preparation. But for many parents and grandparents, the best thing they can do is provide a bilingual education for the young people in the family.
We live in a multilingual world, and that is likely to be true for decades to come. If your children are not equipped with the language skills they need, they will be limited in terms of educational opportunities, career options and even personal relationships. Giving your children the bilingual education they need will help them enormously - not only now but for the rest of their lives.
Bilingual education has a number of important benefits for people of all ages, but learning a new language is especially valuable for young children. While men and women certainly can learn a new language no matter what age they are, the growing brains of young children are better able to absorb those new words, sounds and grammar rules. Study after study has shown that young children learn new languages more readily and retain the information far better than adults.
By Dean Marriott
When looking at the A-Z of places to visit in Switzerland, Zurich, through no fault of its own, may unavoidably be towards the end of the list alphabetically. However, it tops the list in Switzerland as the largest and richest city, surpassing Geneva in terms of resident millionaires, with over 27% of its inhabitants falling into this category. That said, Zurich is accessible to all, no matter what your budget may be. It is a vibrant and diverse city in terms of population and culture, having 31% of the city's population made up of non-Swiss from a total of 166 different countries.
This year, the 24th Street Parade took place on 29th August 2015 and what a spectacular day this was. With temperatures hitting 32 degrees, in excess of 1 million people descended on Zurich which literally transformed, not simply into the pulsating heart of Switzerland, but that of Europe.
By Mark Routen, Forth Capital
As the government first announced in the 2013 Autumn Statement and subsequently enacted in the Finance Act 2015, capital gains tax (CGT) applies to non-residents disposing of UK residential property. The tax is levied on gains arising on disposals after 5th April 2015 and only applies to gains made since that date. Before then, CGT did not apply to non-residents, other than those carrying on a trade in the UK, certain temporary non-residents or companies subject to the ‘annual tax on enveloped dwellings’ (ATED) charge.
The extension of the CGT charge goes some way to putting the UK system in line with other jurisdictions that charge tax on the basis of where the property is located rather than where the owner is resident.
