Swiss town to give taxes paid by Glencore boss to charity in protest

Voters in a small Swiss town decided yesterday to donate 110,000 Swiss francs (€89,348) of taxes paid by GlencoreXstrata chief executive Ivan Glasenberg to charity in protest against the commodities giant's business practices.

Voters in Hedingen, a town of some 3,500 inhabitants in the canton of Zurich, backed by 764 to 662 an initiative to donate about 10 per cent of the tax money the town received in the wake of Glencore’s initial public offering in 2011.

“[Hedingen] is making a clear sign of solidarity with those suffering the consequences of the extraction of raw materials,” the committee behind the popular vote said in a statement.

The money will be donated to three humanitarian projects in Africa and South America.

Glencore’s top shareholder, Mr Glasenberg, who lives in the Swiss town of Rueschlikon, paid 360 million Swiss francs in taxes in the canton of Zurich in 2011.

Hedingen received about one million francs under a redistribution scheme that smoothes out fiscal inequalities between the canton’s municipalities.

Several neighbouring municipalities plan to organise similar votes in the coming months. – (Reuters)