Unusual: Hansjörg Wyss wants to pay more taxes

The extremely wealthy Bernese Hansjörg Wyss recently stated in the Berner Zeitung "that he should pay more taxes," considering that he does not pay enough, while adding that, in his opinion, "the rich, in general, are too spared by the taxman, especially in the United States." It will be remembered that he made a lot of noise when he sold his company Synthes at the end of last April. In the transaction, he collected nearly 9 billion francs and, in doing so, became one of the richest Swiss in the country. On the other hand, he had to pay part of his fortune to the American taxman: one and a half billion francs.

L’homme, qui avoue mener le même train de vie qu’il y a 20 ans, songe maintenant à imiter Warren Buffett ou Bill Gates, dont la générosité est de plus en plus connue.  En premier lieu, il a l’intention de se séparer d’une bonne partie de sa fortune pour le financement de projets sociaux qui lui tiennent à cœur (principalement aux États-Unis) mais certains projets suisses recevront eux aussi plusieurs millions.

A committed man

As the years passed, Mr. Wyss found more and more leisure activities outside of board meetings. For example, he became involved with the Pro Sesseli Foundation, which is fighting against the construction of a cable car on the Weissenstein mountain, financially supports the Pro Progr cultural initiative, and chairs the Fondation Beyeler. He also decided to sell his company Synthes to devote more time to philanthropic work.

Source: www.letemps.ch