After the Federal Supreme Court decision, the second home owners are making demands
Now the Aletsch Arena is on the money
Owners of second homes in the Aletsch region successfully sued against a lump sum visitor’s tax from the local tourism organization. Now it’s millions. And about the future of the Aletsch Arena.
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Peter Koch (72) is a happy man. At the beginning of July, he won a sensational legal battle against the Aletsch Arena. Koch is President of the IG Fiescheralp and defended himself before the Federal Supreme Court against having to give too much money to the tourism organization since November 1, 2020. As of this date, the visitor’s tax was increased from CHF 2.50 to CHF 3.50 and the number of overnight stays was flat-rate. As a result, the affected second home owners all had to pay the same amount, regardless of how many guests they had per year.
The Federal Supreme Court has partially approved complaints from second-home owners in the Valais communities of Fiesch, Riederalp and Bettmeralp and ordered that new regulations with a comprehensible number of nights must be drawn up. The Aletsch Arena wants to do this as quickly as possible. It should be homologated by the State Council as early as 2023, reports the “Walliser Bote”. To do this, it must first be developed and approved by the interest groups.
2.5 million francs are missing
But time is pressing. Because the publicity debacle is not the biggest problem in the Aletsch Arena. As long as the new regulations are not in place, no visitor’s tax invoices can be issued. This means that around 2.5 million francs are missing from the cash register, says Philippe Sproll, Managing Director of the Aletsch Arena, to Blick. If the new regulations had been accepted in court, one would have collected around CHF 1 million more in tourist taxes than before. Now you run the risk of “not being able to fulfill our job professionally,” says Sproll. So it’s about existence. To illustrate: In the current annual report, the Aletsch Arena shows a net profit of almost 19,671 francs. With a yield of 5.7 million Swiss francs.
In addition, the owners of second homes now want the money that they previously paid too much for. “As a precaution, most of the affected second home owners only paid from the start with the information that they would do so subject to the condition that the Federal Court’s decision was pending,” says Peter Koch to Blick. How much money that will be is unclear. For this, the new tourist tax regulations must first be worked out.
The chances that something has to be paid for are likely to be high. In Bellwald VS, the federal court also ruled that too many nights were billed at a flat rate. The municipality then sent vouchers to the affected second home owners. However, the parties there were much less divided than in the Aletsch area. Peter Koch says: “We don’t want to be compensated with vouchers.” But you could probably talk to yourself if the outstanding amounts were offset against the 2023 bill.
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