Federal Act
on Film Production and Film Culture
(Film Act, FiA)

This Act is in­ten­ded to pro­mote the di­versity and qual­ity of the films on of­fer and the cre­ation of films and to aid the de­vel­op­ment of film cul­ture.

¹ A film is defined as any se­quence of struc­tured im­ages, with or without a soundtrack, in­ten­ded for re­pro­duc­tion, which when viewed, gives the im­pres­sion of move­ment, ir­re­spect­ive of the tech­nic­al pro­ced­ure for shoot­ing, re­cord­ing or play­back chosen.

² A Swiss film is defined as a film that:

a.

has to a sub­stan­tial ex­tent been cre­ated by an au­thor of Swiss na­tion­al­ity or who is dom­i­ciled in Switzer­land;

b.

has been pro­duced by a nat­ur­al per­son who is dom­i­ciled in Switzer­land or a com­pany with re­gistered of­fice in Switzer­land in which the equity and bor­rowed cap­it­al as well as the man­age­ment is pre­dom­in­antly held and con­trolled re­spect­ively by per­sons with dom­i­cile in Switzer­land; and

c.

which was pro­duced, in­so­far as pos­sible, us­ing per­formers and tech­ni­cians who are of Swiss na­tion­al­ity or dom­i­ciled in Switzer­land and by tech­nic­al cine­ma­to­graph­ic com­pan­ies in Switzer­land.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion sup­ports the cul­tur­al dis­sem­in­a­tion, the eco­nom­ic vi­ab­il­ity, the con­tinu­ity and the de­vel­op­ment po­ten­tial of the in­de­pend­ent Swiss film in­dustry. To this end, it may provide fin­an­cial as­sist­ance and oth­er forms of sup­port for the de­vel­op­ment of pro­jects as well as for the pro­duc­tion and ex­ploit­a­tion of:

a.

Swiss films;

b.

films co-pro­duced by Switzer­land and oth­er coun­tries.

In or­der to pro­mote the cul­tur­al and lin­guist­ic di­versity and the qual­ity of the films on of­fer, the Con­fed­er­a­tion may provide fin­an­cial as­sist­ance and oth­er forms of sup­port, in par­tic­u­lar for dis­tri­bu­tion, pub­lic screen­ing and sales.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion may provide fin­an­cial as­sist­ance and oth­er forms of sup­port for:

a.

the dis­sem­in­a­tion of film cul­ture and for in­creas­ing film aware­ness;

b.

film fest­ivals that make a sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tion to the na­tion­al or in­ter­na­tion­al film cul­ture;

c.

the archiv­ing and res­tor­a­tion of films;

d.

co­oper­a­tion among the vari­ous sec­tors of the film in­dustry;

e.

fur­ther in­sti­tu­tions and ef­forts that make a sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tion to the main­ten­ance and de­vel­op­ment of film pro­duc­tion and film cul­ture in Switzer­land as well as in­nov­a­tion in these fields;

f.

in­ter­na­tion­al co­oper­a­tion in the film sec­tor.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion may provide fin­an­cial as­sist­ance and oth­er forms of sup­port for the con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing of per­sons work­ing in the film in­dustry.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion may re­ward out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to film pro­duc­tion and film cul­ture by award­ing prizes or oth­er dis­tinc­tions.

¹ Fin­an­cial as­sist­ance is provided:

a.

ac­cord­ing to cri­ter­ia re­lated to qual­ity (se­lect­ive pro­mo­tion);

b.

ac­cord­ing to cri­ter­ia re­lated to suc­cess (suc­cess-linked pro­mo­tion);

c.

ac­cord­ing to cri­ter­ia re­lated to loc­a­tion (loc­a­tion-linked pro­mo­tion); or

d.

ac­cord­ing to the con­tri­bu­tion made to the di­versity and qual­ity of the films on of­fer in all parts of the coun­try (di­versity pro­mo­tion).⁶

² The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs (FDHA) de­term­ines the re­quire­ments, in par­tic­u­lar the re­in­vest­ment ob­lig­a­tions, and the pro­ced­ure.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may del­eg­ate film pro­mo­tion in a par­tic­u­lar field to a private or­gan­isa­tion provided third parties make an im­port­ant con­tri­bu­tion to such pro­mo­tion.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­cides on the prin­ciple of del­eg­a­tion on a case-to-case basis. The FDHA⁷ de­term­ines the gen­er­al con­di­tions and ap­points the rep­res­ent­at­ives of the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall enter in­to a ser­vice agree­ment with the or­gan­isa­tion in or­der to reg­u­late the mu­tu­al ob­lig­a­tions. The ser­vice agree­ment provides for a court of ar­bit­ra­tion that de­cides, without right of ap­peal, on dis­putes between the or­gan­isa­tion and en­titled parties.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may enter in­to ser­vice agree­ments with leg­al en­tit­ies that reg­u­larly re­ceive fin­an­cial as­sist­ance.

² Re­cur­ring op­er­at­ing con­tri­bu­tions to profit-ori­ented com­pan­ies are ex­cluded.⁸

¹ The FDHA reg­u­lates the or­gan­isa­tion of film pro­mo­tion through pro­mo­tion con­cepts.

² The pro­mo­tion con­cepts are is­sued for the in­di­vidu­al pro­mo­tion areas in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 3–6 as well as for awards in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 7. They define the goals that should be achieved, des­ig­nate the pro­mo­tion in­stru­ments and de­term­ine the de­cis­ive cri­ter­ia.

³ The pro­mo­tion con­cepts is­sued have a peri­od of valid­ity of from three to five years.

¹ The ap­pro­pri­ate­ness and ef­fect­ive­ness of the pro­mo­tion con­cepts and the pro­mo­tion in­stru­ments are as­sessed reg­u­larly.

² The res­ults of the as­sess­ment are made pub­lic.

³ The FDHA reg­u­lates the as­sess­ment pro­ced­ure.

¹ Fin­an­cial as­sist­ance shall be provided with­in the lim­its of the au­thor­ised cred­its in the form of non-re­pay­able cash pay­ments, de­fi­cit guar­an­tees, in­terest sub­sidies, pay­ments in kind or con­di­tion­ally re­pay­able loans.¹⁰

² Sup­port may also be provided in the form of ad­vice or re­com­mend­a­tions and by is­su­ing let­ters of com­fort or provid­ing oth­er ser­vices in kind.

¹ Fin­an­cial as­sist­ance and oth­er forms of sup­port are awar­ded by the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Cul­ture (FOC)¹¹.

² If the FOC does not have the re­quired tech­nic­al know­ledge, it shall have the ap­plic­a­tions as­sessed by tech­nic­al com­mit­tees or spe­cially in­struc­ted ex­perts.

³ …¹²

¹ The fin­an­cing of film pro­mo­tion is gov­erned by Art­icle 27 of the Cul­ture Pro­mo­tion Act of 11 Decem­ber 2009¹³.¹⁴

² In­come from the tax on the pro­mo­tion of the di­versity of films on of­fer, con­tri­bu­tions from broad­cast­ing or­gan­isa­tions and on­line film pro­viders as well as any pay­ments and be­ne­fits from third parties are in­cluded in the fin­an­cial budget. In­ten­ded uses pur­poses:

a.

Tasks in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 3–6;

b.

Tasks in con­nec­tion with the col­lec­tion of the tax;

c.

Tasks in con­nec­tion with the en­force­ment of Chapter 3a.¹⁵

³ The FOC shall al­loc­ate the avail­able re­sources an­nu­ally to the pro­mo­tion areas in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 3–6. In do­ing so it takes ac­count of the pro­mo­tion con­cepts and stip­u­lates the max­im­um amounts of as­sist­ance that may be awar­ded to any in­di­vidu­al pro­ject in each pro­mo­tion area.

¹ No fin­an­cial as­sist­ance is awar­ded to:

a.

ad­vert­ising films;

b.

films that are primar­ily edu­ca­tion­al in their ob­ject­ive;

c.

films that pro­duced to or­der.

² Films that are com­pletely ex­cluded from film pro­mo­tion meas­ures in­clude films:

a.

that of­fend hu­man dig­nity;

b.

that por­tray mem­bers of either sex of a spe­cif­ic group in a de­grad­ing man­ner;

c.

that glor­i­fy or trivi­al­ise vi­ol­ence;

d.

that are por­no­graph­ic in char­ac­ter.

¹ Dis­tri­bu­tion and pro­jec­tion com­pan­ies must con­trib­ute in their activ­it­ies to the di­versity of films on of­fer by means of:

a.

their busi­ness policy;

b.

meas­ures agreed with­in the in­dustry.

² The meas­ures in­clude agree­ments in which dis­tri­bu­tion and pro­jec­tion com­pan­ies or their pro­fes­sion­al as­so­ci­ations un­der­take to or­gan­ise the pro­gram­ming for a cinema re­gion to provide as much di­versity and qual­ity as pos­sible.

³ Be­fore en­ter­ing in­to an agree­ment with­in the in­dustry, the as­so­ci­ations in­volved shall con­sult the FDHA on the meas­ures planned to pro­mote the di­versity of the films on of­fer and lin­guist­ic di­versity.

The di­versity of films on of­fer in a cinema re­gion is guar­an­teed if the films on of­fer, giv­en the num­ber of screens used and the size of the cinema re­gion, ori­gin­ate in suf­fi­cient num­bers from a vari­ety of coun­tries, are of a vari­ety of genres and rep­res­ent a vari­ety of film styles.

¹ Films sub­sid­ised by the Con­fed­er­a­tion must be made avail­able in more than one na­tion­al lan­guage.

² A com­pany may dis­trib­ute a title for its first pub­lic show­ing in the cinema or for oth­er uses of the work only if it holds the rights for the whole of Switzer­land to all lan­guage ver­sions that are avail­able for ex­ploit­a­tion in Switzer­land.¹⁶

³ The fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to ex­ploit­a­tion by broad­cast­ing or­gan­isa­tions in pro­gramme ser­vices un­der Art­icle 2 let­ter a of the Fed­er­al Act of 24 March 2006¹⁷ on Ra­dio and Tele­vi­sion.¹⁸

¹ Films sup­por­ted by the Con­fed­er­a­tion are de­pos­ited with the «Cinémathèque Suisse» found­a­tion.

² They can be made ac­cess­ible to the pub­lic five years after their re­lease.

¹ The FOC shall reg­u­larly as­sess the ef­fect of the activ­it­ies and meas­ures in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 17 on the basis of the in­form­a­tion re­ceived in terms of Art­icle 24 peri­od­ic­ally. It shall pub­lish the res­ults of the as­sess­ment and al­lows the in­dustry, and in par­tic­u­lar the pro­mo­tion or­gan­isa­tions that are party to agree­ments in terms of Art­icle 17 para­graph 3, the op­por­tun­ity to state its views.

² If the FOC es­tab­lishes in the course of the as­sess­ment that the di­versity of films on of­fer in a cinema re­gion is in­ad­equate, it shall re­quire the dis­tri­bu­tion and pro­jec­tion com­pan­ies con­cerned to take meas­ures with­in a reas­on­able time to re-es­tab­lish the di­versity of films.

³ In re­la­tion to dis­tri­bu­tion and pro­jec­tion com­pan­ies that have entered in­to an agree­ment in terms of Art­icle 17 para­graph 3, the in­struc­tions are is­sued to the pro­mo­tion or­gan­isa­tion. This shall take the re­quired meas­ures in­de­pend­ently in or­der to re-es­tab­lish the di­versity of films on of­fer with­in a reas­on­able time.

¹ If the po­s­i­tion re­quired by the law is not re-es­tab­lished with­in a reas­on­able time, the Con­fed­er­a­tion may levy a tax. The FDHA de­cides on wheth­er the tax is levied after hear­ing the parties con­cerned and the Film Com­mis­sion (Art. 25).

² The rate of tax is a max­im­um of 2 francs per ad­mis­sion, and is levied on the ad­mis­sions achieved by the dis­tri­bu­tion and pro­jec­tion com­pan­ies con­cerned in a cinema re­gion. These com­pan­ies, sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of Art­icle 22, each pay one half of the tax.

³ After de­duc­tion of the costs of im­ple­ment­a­tion, the in­come from the tax is used to pro­mote the di­versity of films on of­fer in the dis­tri­bu­tion sec­tor and in pub­lic pro­jec­tion in the cinema re­gion con­cerned.

⁴ The tax may be levied for as long as is re­quired to re-es­tab­lish the po­s­i­tion re­quired by the law.

¹ Dis­tri­bu­tion and pro­jec­tion com­pan­ies may se­cure ex­emp­tion from pay­ment of the tax by mak­ing a form­al un­der­tak­ing to the Con­fed­er­a­tion to make a spe­cial con­tri­bu­tion to the di­versity and qual­ity of the films on of­fer in a cinema re­gion.

² In the event of wil­ful non-com­pli­ance with the un­der­tak­ing in terms of para­graph 1, the tax be­comes due for pay­ment without any fur­ther form­al­it­ies.

¹ Who­ever on a pro­fes­sion­al basis screens films in pub­lic or dis­trib­utes films in­ten­ded to be screened in pub­lic must be re­gistered in a pub­lic fed­er­al re­gister be­fore en­ga­ging in their activ­ity.

² In or­der to be able to re­gister, it is ne­ces­sary to be dom­i­ciled or to have one’s head of­fice in Switzer­land.

³ In or­der for a leg­al en­tity to be able to re­gister, the mem­bers of its seni­or man­age­ment must be dom­i­ciled in Switzer­land. No­tice must be giv­en to the FOC of any change oc­cur­ring in the mem­bers of the seni­or man­age­ment.

¹ …²⁰

² The dis­tri­bu­tion com­pan­ies must sub­mit a re­port every month on titles of the films dis­trib­uted, the places of screen­ing, the screens on which they are pro­jec­ted and the num­ber of ad­mis­sions at­tained (cinema at­tend­ance).

³ The pro­jec­tion com­pan­ies in the key towns sub­mit a re­port every week, and oth­er pro­jec­tion com­pan­ies every month, on the titles screened, the screens on which they are pro­jec­ted and the ad­mis­sions achieved per title and per screen.

^3bis …²¹

⁴ The re­ports are made to the Con­fed­er­a­tion or to an or­gan­isa­tion re­cog­nised by the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

⁵ The data re­ferred to in para­graphs 2, 3 and 3^bis shall be pub­lished reg­u­larly.²²

¹ Com­pan­ies that of­fer films in Switzer­land via elec­tron­ic on-de­mand or sub­scrip­tion ser­vices must en­sure that at least 30 per cent of the films are European films and that these films are spe­cific­ally la­belled and easy to find in or­der to pro­mote di­versity.

² The ob­lig­a­tion un­der para­graph 1 also ap­plies to com­pan­ies that are dom­i­ciled abroad and tar­get the Swiss pub­lic.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall ex­empt com­pan­ies from the ob­lig­a­tion un­der para­graph 1 if:

a.

they do not achieve a cer­tain min­im­um turnover;

b.

they only of­fer films oc­ca­sion­ally; or

c.

the ob­lig­a­tion ap­pears dis­pro­por­tion­ate or im­possible to com­ply with, in par­tic­u­lar be­cause of the type of films offered, the them­at­ic fo­cus of the of­fer or be­cause third-party of­fers are fea­tured un­changed.

¹ Com­pan­ies that show films in their pro­gramme ser­vices in Switzer­land or of­fer them via elec­tron­ic on-de­mand or sub­scrip­tion ser­vices must in­vest at least 4 per cent of their gross rev­en­ues an­nu­ally in in­de­pend­ent Swiss film pro­duc­tion or pay a cor­res­pond­ing com­pens­a­tion tax. A com­pens­a­tion tax shall be due if the in­vest­ment ob­lig­a­tion is not met on av­er­age over a peri­od of four years.

² The ob­lig­a­tion un­der para­graph 1 also ap­plies to com­pan­ies that have their re­gistered of­fice abroad and tar­get the Swiss pub­lic.

³ This sec­tion does not ap­ply to the Swiss Broad­cast­ing Cor­por­a­tion (SRG).

⁴ Four years after this pro­vi­sion comes in­to force, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall sub­mit a re­port on the rev­en­ue un­der the in­vest­ment ob­lig­a­tion and the com­pens­a­tion tax in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1 and 2 and on the ef­fects of these in­vest­ments and taxes on Swiss film pro­duc­tion and the com­pan­ies sub­ject to the in­vest­ment and tax ob­lig­a­tion.

¹ Ex­pendit­ure on the ac­quis­i­tion, pro­duc­tion or co-pro­duc­tion of Swiss films and re­cog­nised Swiss-for­eign co-pro­duc­tions that are paid to third parties in­de­pend­ent of the cli­ent. The term «film» is defined in Art­icle 2.

² Ex­pendit­ure on:

a.

the ac­quis­i­tion of the ex­ploit­a­tion rights for their own of­fer from the rights hold­ers and re­mu­ner­a­tion for the use of films in ac­cord­ance with the Copy­right Act of 9 Oc­to­ber 1992²⁴ paid to the au­thor­ised col­lect­ing so­ci­et­ies;

b.

the pro­duc­tion of com­mis­sioned films;

c.

the pro­duc­tion or co-pro­duc­tion of Swiss films as well as co-pro­duc­tions un­der an in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ment;

d.

the ad­vert­ising and pro­mo­tion of films of Swiss ori­gin or the strength­en­ing of Switzer­land as a film loc­a­tion, up to a max­im­um of CHF 500,000 per year and tele­vi­sion pro­gramme ser­vice;

e.

film pro­mo­tion in­sti­tu­tions re­cog­nised by the FOC.

³ Any cul­tur­al and film pro­mo­tion sub­sidies from the Con­fed­er­a­tion, the can­tons or com­munes or from in­sti­tu­tions that are mainly sup­por­ted by them or fin­anced by pub­lic taxes.

¹ In the case of com­pan­ies dom­i­ciled abroad, only the gross rev­en­ue ac­cru­ing from Switzer­land is rel­ev­ant.

² In the case of com­pan­ies that op­er­ate net­works, only the gross rev­en­ue from the film ser­vice is rel­ev­ant.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the pro­ced­ure for de­term­in­ing and col­lect­ing the com­pens­a­tion tax and for co­oper­a­tion with the do­mest­ic and for­eign au­thor­it­ies. In do­ing so, it shall take in­to ac­count the le­git­im­ate in­terests of the com­pan­ies con­cerned in the pro­tec­tion of their busi­ness secrets.

² Com­pan­ies are ex­empt from the ob­lig­a­tion to take in­de­pend­ent Swiss film pro­duc­tion in­to ac­count if:

a.

they do not achieve a cer­tain min­im­um turnover;

b.

they only of­fer films oc­ca­sion­ally; or

c.

the ob­lig­a­tion ap­pears dis­pro­por­tion­ate or im­possible to com­ply with, in par­tic­u­lar con­sid­er­ing the type of films offered or the them­at­ic fo­cus of the of­fer, due to the lim­ited reach of the tele­vi­sion pro­gramme ser­vices or be­cause third-party pro­gramme ser­vices or of­fers are fea­tured un­changed.

Swiss au­thor­it­ies shall provide the FOC free of charge with data that may be rel­ev­ant for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Chapter. The data shall be made avail­able in­di­vidu­ally, on lists or on elec­tron­ic data car­ri­ers.

¹ Com­pan­ies that show films in their pro­gramme ser­vices in Switzer­land or of­fer them via elec­tron­ic on-de­mand or sub­scrip­tion ser­vices must re­gister in a pub­lic fed­er­al re­gister.

² If a com­pany is not entered in the Fed­er­al Com­mer­cial Re­gister, it must in­dic­ate a dom­i­cile for ser­vice in Switzer­land in the re­gister in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 and the per­sons re­spons­ible must be named.

³ Changes must be re­por­ted to the FOC without delay.

¹ The com­pan­ies men­tioned in Art­icle 24g para­graph 1 must an­nu­ally:

a.

sub­mit a re­port to the FOC stat­ing wheth­er and how the ob­lig­a­tions un­der Art­icle 24a para­graph 1 are ful­filled;

b.

re­port the in­form­a­tion ne­ces­sary to the FOC for mon­it­or­ing the ob­lig­a­tion un­der Art­icle 24b, namely the gross rev­en­ue they have gen­er­ated and the ex­pendit­ure claimed for the ac­quis­i­tion, pro­duc­tion or co-pro­duc­tion of Swiss films and re­cog­nised Swiss-for­eign co-pro­duc­tions.

² Com­pan­ies that are ex­empt un­der Art­icle 24a para­graph 3 or 24e para­graph 2 shall re­port if the cir­cum­stances rel­ev­ant to their ex­emp­tion have changed.

¹ Com­pan­ies that of­fer films in Switzer­land for a fee via elec­tron­ic on-de­mand or sub­scrip­tion ser­vices must no­ti­fy the Con­fed­er­a­tion of the num­ber of re­quests per film title.

² The data shall be pub­lished peri­od­ic­ally.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish a Fed­er­al Film Com­mis­sion («the Film Com­mis­sion»), which ad­vises the au­thor­it­ies on all im­port­ant is­sues re­lat­ing to film cul­ture, film policy and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act.

² The Film Com­mis­sion must in par­tic­u­lar be con­sul­ted:

a.

on the pro­vi­sions for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act, the pro­mo­tion con­cepts and the dis­tri­bu­tion plans;

b.

on the as­sess­ment of the pro­mo­tion con­cepts and pro­mo­tion in­stru­ments;

c.

on the res­ults of the as­sess­ment of the di­versity of films on of­fer and lin­guist­ic di­versity.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the com­pos­i­tion of the Film Com­mis­sion. It ap­points its chair­per­son and its mem­bers.

⁴ The FDHA reg­u­lates the or­gan­isa­tion and pro­ced­ure. It may es­tab­lish com­mit­tees from the Film Com­mis­sion and del­eg­ate spe­cif­ic tasks to them.

¹ Tech­nic­al com­mit­tees shall be ap­poin­ted to as­sess ap­plic­a­tions for pro­mo­tion as­sist­ance.

² The FDHA shall reg­u­late their or­gan­isa­tion and the pro­ced­ure.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully fails to com­ply with the re­gis­tra­tion re­quire­ment in Art­icle 23 para­graphs 2 and 3 or 24g para­graphs 1 and 2 shall be li­able to a fine.²⁶

² If the in­fringe­ment is re­peated, the pen­alty is a fine of up to 20,000 francs.

¹ Any per­son who as a mem­ber of the seni­or man­age­ment of a com­pany sub­ject to the re­port­ing and no­ti­fic­a­tion re­quire­ments fails des­pite re­ceiv­ing a re­mind­er to provide the in­form­a­tion due in terms of Art­icle 24 para­graphs 2 and 3, 24h or 24i para­graph 1 or who wil­fully provides false in­form­a­tion shall be li­able to a fine.²⁷

² If the in­fringe­ment is re­peated, the pen­alty is a fine of up to 20,000 francs.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully dis­trib­utes for first show­ing a title to which a re­gistered com­pany has already ac­quired the rights for the same ex­hib­i­tion sec­tor (Art. 19 para. 2) shall be li­able to a fine.

² If the in­fringe­ment is re­peated, the pen­alty is a fine of up to 100,000 francs.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully evades pay­ment of a tax in terms of Art­icle 21 or who se­cures for him­self or an­oth­er an un­law­ful tax ad­vant­age shall be li­able to a fine of up to three times the amount of the tax evaded or of the ad­vant­age.

² If the of­fence is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, the pen­alty is a fine of up to the amount of the tax evaded or of the ad­vant­age.

³ If it is not pos­sible to as­cer­tain the pre­cise amount of the tax in fig­ures, it is es­tim­ated.

⁴ An at­tempt to se­cure an un­law­ful tax ad­vant­age for one­self or for an­oth­er is a crim­in­al of­fence.

¹ The Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974²⁸ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law ap­plies in re­la­tion to the pro­sec­u­tion and judge­ment of the of­fence.

² The fed­er­al ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for pro­sec­u­tion and judge­ment is the FDHA.

¹ The pro­ced­ure and the leg­al rem­ed­ies are gov­erned by the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions on the ad­min­is­tra­tion of fed­er­al justice.

² …³⁰

³ In ap­peal pro­ceed­ings against de­cisions on fin­an­cial as­sist­ance, the com­plaint of un­reas­on­able­ness is not per­mit­ted.

In or­der to pro­mote in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions in the cine­ma­to­graph­ic sec­tor, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may enter in­to con­tracts un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law and private law, in par­tic­u­lar in re­la­tion to:

a.

co-pro­duc­tions;

b.

fin­an­cial par­ti­cip­a­tion in in­ter­na­tion­al pro­duc­tions;

c.

the pro­mo­tion of films;

d.

cul­tur­al ef­forts in the cine­ma­to­graph­ic sec­tor;

e.

fin­an­cial par­ti­cip­a­tion in in­ter­na­tion­al pro­mo­tion meas­ures;

f.³¹

ad­min­is­trat­ive co­oper­a­tion, data pro­tec­tion and the al­low­ab­il­ity of fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tions and taxes in con­nec­tion with cross-bor­der activ­it­ies.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­act the im­ple­ment­a­tion pro­vi­sions un­less this Act des­ig­nates a dif­fer­ent au­thor­ity.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may del­eg­ate in­di­vidu­al im­ple­ment­a­tion tasks to private or­gan­isa­tions.

The Fed­er­al Act of 28 Septem­ber 1962³² on the Film In­dustry is re­pealed.

The fol­low­ing en­act­ments are amended as fol­lows:

…³³

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Au­gust 2002³⁴