GstaadLife

 
This past Friday evening we stopped by Brot Bar on the way home to pick up a loaf of one of those very good (and at 18h30 still warm) paillasse dunkels. As we walked in, to our right under the Anzeiger TV screen, the corner was piled high with photo and video equipment, the place was rammed with people who wear fluorescent jackets and drive white vans, the coffee machine was running on overtime, and the whole place had the nervous buzz of a newsroom on a mission. Thing was, the mission had largely been a failure. Of course, they were all there for the shot of Roman Polanski arriving back in Gstaad for his period of house arrest as he awaits the outcome of extradition proceedings. But having spent much of the past days trapsing through neighboring gardens off the Grubenstrasse, all they left with were cold feet and the distinct feeling that they weren't very welcome. It is said that the right shot could have fetched hundreds of thousands of francs, but it's hard to feel sorry for them - moreso for their families maybe. Anyway, what do you think about this whole Polanski thing...

They say money makes the world go round. And around and around till the people who have it find a place where they don't have to spend so much of it on income tax. Saanenland is one such place. Canton Bern, however, is currently discussing plans to scrap the so-called "Pauschalsteuer" tax breaks for foreigners, an increasingly popular passtime in helvetic government chambers in light of the global economic environment, increased scrutiny on Switzerland as a tax haven, and cantons that have already voted to strike down these tax deals, such as Canton Zurich. And since half of the 160 people who profit from these special tax treaties in Canton Bern actually live in Saanenland, the discussion has taken over local discourse. Notably Gemeinde president Aldo Kropf is for the special tax deals, probably a sensible position to take given that SFr 4 million of the SFr 12 million francs which are earned every year in the canton go to the communes. In other words, it's better to create a win-win situation for foreigners who want to live and pay tax here or they will simply end up paying it somewhere else. Opponents, especially Swiss people, argue the deals are unfair, with wealthy individuals basically free to propose their own tax regime to the local authorities based loosely on property-related formulae, leaving ordinary income earners paying a much higher proportion of their earnings than foreigners with Pauschalsteuer agreements. So what do you think...

by Taki Theodoracopulos

When Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet committed suicide just before Christmas, I hoped against hope that others would do the same. No such luck. Villehuchet was an aristocrat, a gentleman and an honest man. He felt responsible for the loss of $1.4 billion and he took the honourable way out. I did not know Villehuchet but people who did have spoken very highly of him. The rest of Madoff’s gang I do know, and they are as likely to do the honourable thing as I am to emigrate to Israel. Most of these friends of Madoff own chalets in Gstaad, or visit regularly. I have warned personnel at the Gstaad Palace, the Yacht Club and the Eagle Club that if I come across any of them there will be fisticuffs. Not that any of them would fight. People like that rarely do.