Will you pay more or less? The marriage penalty is being abolished - calculate what this means for you here

Switzerland is fundamentally changing its tax system. According to projections by gfs.bern for SRG, around 56% of voters said yes to individual taxation. In future, every person - regardless of marital status - will be taxed individually.

Will you be paying significantly more or significantly less in future? Get in touch with us. You can reach us on WhatsApp at +41 79 282 27 12. You can also contact us by email.

Hardly any other voting issue is currently as complex as individual taxation. In such cases, many people vote the way their preferred party recommends. Interest in the party slogans is correspondingly high. But something else is even more important for your own decision: how does the bill affect you personally?

blue News has created a calculator based on data from the Federal Finance Administration. This allows voters to check what individual taxation at federal level means for them: will I pay more or less tax?

We explain below why this change is taking place and who is for or against it.

In short, every person in Switzerland will be taxed individually in future. This means that each person will fill out their own tax return and the tax office will assess income and assets separately.

This ends a system that currently applies to married couples: they file a joint tax return and are taxed jointly.

Because the Swiss tax system is progressive - i.e. higher incomes are taxed more heavily in percentage terms - this can lead to a higher tax burden. In the case of married couples with two incomes, the joint income is taxed more heavily than if the two people were unmarried.

This effect is known as the "marriage penalty". Attempts have been made for decades to solve this problem. With the adoption of individual taxation, this unequal tax treatment is now to be eliminated.

In future, married couples in particular could pay more if only one person earns an income or if there is a very large income gap.

For example, if one person earns CHF 90,000 a year and the other earns nothing, the taxpayer could pay more federal tax in future than they do today.

Such single-earner households currently benefit in part from the so-called marriage bonus. This will be abolished with the reform.

However, certain deductions will increase at the same time. The child deduction for direct federal tax will be increased from the current CHF 6,800 to CHF 12,000. The amount will be divided between the parents.

The main beneficiaries will be married couples where both parents work.

Example 1 (working couple): Roger and Anita earn the same amount. Together they earn CHF 150,000 and have two children. Their federal tax is reduced by around 1550 francs.

Example 2 (childless dual earners): Stefan and Hans are childless and together earn CHF 280,000. They also earn the same amount. Their tax is reduced by around 7130 francs.

Couples with unequal wage distribution often benefit too - as long as one person does not depend entirely on the other's income.

Example 3 (the woman with the mini-job): If Martin and Franziska together earn 220,000 francs and Franziska contributes around 2500 francs a month, they pay around 180 francs less tax. This applies even with an income ratio of 85 to 15 percent.

With the reform, the federal government, cantons and municipalities will have to assess each person individually in future.

Married couples will have to submit two tax returns and declare their own income and assets.

In future, a distinction will be made between property income and property ownership. Joint assets will generally be divided equally. In the case of real estate, the entry in the land register is decisive.

The authorities have several years to implement the new system. The new system must be introduced by January 1, 2032 at the latest.