Monsanto must pay 10 years’ waived taxes to Swiss region

Switzerland’s highest court has ordered Monsanto to pay back 10 years’ worth of waived taxes after it left the Vaud region early following its takeover by Bayer, according to a ruling.

The US agrochemical giant was ordered to hand over 34 million Swiss francs ($36.9 million, €32.7 million) to the western Vaud canton where its European headquarters used to be based, the Swiss supreme court ruling dated December 3 said.

The verdict, first reported by the RTS broadcaster, showed that Monsanto had received a generous tax break when it established its headquarters in the Vaud town of Morges in 2004. The maker of the controversial weed killer roundup saw all of its taxes to the canton waived for the first five years, while its tax bill was cut in two for the following five.

That agreement was based on the understanding that the company would remain in Morges for at least 10 years after the exemption ended, providing the region with significant tax income. But two years after German chemicals giant Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018, it decided to move the headquarters from Morges to Basel, in northern Switzerland.

That was four years earlier than Monsanto’s agreement with Vaud stipulated.

A lower court had partially sided with the agrochemical company’s argument it had a right to move, but the Supreme Court did not agree, ordering Monsanto to pay its tax bill for 2005/2014 in full.

Vaud parliamentarian with the Green Party, Raphael Mahaim, who in 2019 had pushed the canton to demand back the exempt tax money, hailed the ruling.

The Supreme Court had signalled the end “of these little tax arrangements where predators like Monsanto shamelessly use tax rules to optimise their situation, and then fight with a team of lawyers to get the biggest rebate possible,” he told RTS.

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