Taxes
Switzerland's federal structure, with its 26 cantons and semi-cantons and approximately 2,200 municipalities, results in taxes being levied at three levels: Confederation, cantons, and municipalities.
How it works in brief:
- the Federal Constitution regulates which taxes the Confederation can levy
- in principle, the cantons can independently decide which taxes to impose, but the Federal Constitution also defines certain taxes that the cantons are not permitted to collect
- each of the 26 cantons has its own tax law and taxes income, wealth, inheritances, capital gains, and property, as well as other taxes, in different ways
- cantonal tax laws define which taxes may be levied by municipalities. Municipal tax is calculated by applying the municipal multiplier to the basic cantonal tax.
The Confederation, cantons, and municipalities aim to avoid interfering with one another in tax collection, always striving to maintain a balance so as not to overburden taxpayers.
Direct and indirect taxes
While the Confederation's duties are mainly funded by indirect taxes (such as VAT, mineral oil taxes, or tobacco taxes), cantons and municipalities cover their expenses primarily through revenue from direct taxes (e.g. income and wealth taxes).
The English version of this page was created with the aid of automatic translation tools and may contain errors and omissions.
The original version is the page in Italian.