Every dividend a Swiss company pays triggers a federal withholding tax (Verrechnungssteuer) of 35%. The company, not the shareholder, has to withhold it, report it within 30 days, and remit it to the Federal Tax Administration (ESTV). A Swiss-resident shareholder who declares the income recovers the full 35%; a foreign shareholder recovers part or all […]
Equity is one of the most effective ways a Swiss SME can attract and retain talent it could not otherwise afford in cash. But stock options and employee shares are also one of the most misunderstood areas of Swiss tax and payroll. Get the timing and valuation wrong and you create unexpected income-tax bills, social-security […]
Why August Is the Right Time to Start Your 2026 Year-End Close Most Swiss SMEs treat the year-end financial close as a January problem. That is a costly mistake. By the time January arrives, accruals are messy, documents are missing, and your fiduciary or CFO is working under pressure. The businesses that close cleanly – […]
What Changed: The Retroactive Pillar 3a Buy-In Rule On 6 November 2024, the Federal Council adopted an amendment to Art. 7a BVV3, introducing the legal basis for retroactive Pillar 3a contributions – also known as nachträglicher Einkauf. The new rule entered into force on 1 January 2025. Before this amendment, any year in which you […]
From 1 January 2026, the default interest rate the Swiss Confederation charges on overdue federal taxes falls from 4.5% to 4.0%. The reimbursement rate the state pays you on overpaid amounts drops in step, and one quieter change removes an old cash-management trick entirely. For a Swiss SME, the headline looks like good news. The […]
In 2026, the annual VAT reporting option reaches its first real test: SMEs that opted in for the 2025 tax year must file their first annual return, and settle any balance, by the end of February 2026. Annual reporting, available since 1 January 2025, lets qualifying businesses file VAT once a year instead of four […]
Swiss corporate insolvencies are running at record levels in 2026, and a significant part of the reason is a change to debt enforcement law that took effect on 1 January 2025. Since then, falling behind on your VAT, taxes or social security contributions is no longer just an enforcement inconvenience: for a company entered in […]
Many innovative Swiss SMEs pay more cantonal tax than they need to, because they assume the patent box and the research and development super-deduction are instruments for large corporations. They are not. Both were built into ordinary cantonal tax law by the 2020 tax reform, and a MedTech, hardware, software or manufacturing SME with genuine […]
Most Swiss SMEs treat electronic invoicing as optional, and domestically it still is. But from 1 September 2026 France requires structured B2B e-invoicing, Germany follows from 2027, and the practical effect reaches every Swiss company that sells into the EU: your customers there will start refusing PDF invoices. E-invoicing has quietly moved from a nice-to-have […]
For most Swiss SMEs, occupational pension (BVG) contributions are the second largest payroll cost after gross salary, yet they are the line item founders understand least. In September 2024 Swiss voters rejected the “BVG 21” reform, so the framework that applies in 2026 is the same pre-reform structure employers have budgeted for years, with the […]