New Attorney and Notary Public: Dominic Baumgartner

Since 1 January 2021, fathers in Switzerland have the right to two weeks of paternity leave. This change gives new fathers a chance to take some valuable time off to settle into their new role and support their families. Paternity leave raises various considerations for employers and employees, the most important of which are discussed below.

Digital technology has long been a topic of discussion for most people. Accordingly, deceased persons are increasingly leaving an estate in digital form. For surviving relatives, it is almost impossible to track down the data of a deceased person on the internet and gain access to his or her digital estate. For this reason, everyone should take precautions regarding their digital estate during their lifetime. This article provides an overview of the necessary and sensible measures.

In its landmark decision 5V 20 396 (LGVE 2021 III No. 2), the Cantonal Court of Lucerne ruled on the non-inclusion of holiday and public holiday entitlements in the assessment of short-time work (STW) benefits in the summary procedure introduced due to the Covid 19 pandemic for employees on monthly wages.

The Swiss Federal Tax Administration (SFTA) has published the list of exchange rates of foreign currencies and cryptocurrencies as per December 31, 2020. The exchange rates are used to determine the tax values of foreign currencies and cryptocurrencies in CHF which individuals have to declare in their private tax declarations for net wealth tax purposes.

At its meeting on October 14, 2020, the Federal Council decided not to extend the temporary measures to prevent corona-related bankruptcies. The measures of the Covid-19 Ordinance on Insolvency Law of April 16, 2020 were limited to six months and continue to apply until October 19, 2020. For legal entities and their responsible persons that are subject to a legal obligation to notify in the event of capital loss and over-indebtedness, this also means a return to the regular legal obligations to notify in the event of capital loss and over-indebtedness.

With this decision, the Federal Supreme Court clarified the question whether an unsuccessful proceeding for setting aside the objection also justifies the non-disclosure of debt collection to third parties based on Art. 8 para. 3 lit. d of the Swiss Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act. The Federal Supreme Court denies this. Even after an unsuccessful application for the objection to be set aside, the debt enforcement request would still be disclosed to third parties. If the (alleged) debtor nevertheless wishes to prevent disclosure of the debt collection to third parties, he can and must take action himself and bring an action against the (alleged) creditor for cancellation of the debt collection request or demonstration of non-existence of the claim.