In the midst of a lot of tax ads of all kinds, there is one which has gone a little more unnoticed by the general public, but which can potentially act as a big mass: that of taxing chips and semiconductors at 100%. An industrial field well present in the Neuchâtel economic market and more broadly Swiss. It is an important sector of growth: fleas are essential, not only for computers and artificial intelligence, but also for a multitude of electronic devices.
A week ago, Donald Trump declared that he wanted to add this important customs right to this type of product, without specifying the date of his entry into force. “Good news for companies that make fleas and semiconductors in the United States,” said the president. Much less for Neuchâtel and Swiss companies active in the field. Key actor of the branch at the design level, the CSEM helps them to develop their products. The impacts for the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnics are therefore rather indirect as explained by Alain-Serge Porret, member of the Management: “Our customers are already shaken by many changes, especially with taxations in Asia and now in Switzerland. It calls into question their plan, their strategy and potentially their project are offset or modified. The list of CSEM customers is confidential. “But a known Neuchâtel partner who will be directly impacted, it is potentially EM Microelectronic. There is also we semiconductor or semtech which are present in the canton. »»
“The fact remains that 100% tax on a product like an integrated circuit, if it should be applied to a large part of the sales, it makes the product inventable in many cases,” said Alain-Serge Porret. “There are not many options to pass this production in the United States in the short term. Integrated circuit production is very mostly based in Asia. And if you want to go from one production plant to another, the costs and time it takes are substantial. »»
What solutions then for the companies concerned to try to limit breakage? “First of all, it will be necessary to understand what the precise rules of this taxation will be,” explains the man who is also director of the Integrated & Wireless Systems business unit. “Then there is the question: do we import” chips “(fleas and semiconductors), subsystems, printed circuits on which there are these chips for example or full products? And there what the rules will be? It is very possible that for a complete product, it is the taxation of 39% that applies, ”adds Alain-Serge Porret.
While waiting for things to clarify, “the managers of the companies concerned are therefore certainly asking a lot of questions and perhaps revising their investment strategy, delaying projects, changing priorities. I expect this to be the case with this new announcement, ”concludes Alain-Serge Porret. /JPP