On average across the country, private individuals and companies have to deliver almost every four francs to the canton and municipality during the current year. The tax exhaustion index is 24.3 percent. That’s 0.2 percentage points less than in 2022. This is the index’s ninth consecutive decline.
Central Switzerland remains tax-favorable, with the heaviest tax burden in Western Switzerland.
Tax haven Central Switzerland
However, there are significant differences from canton to canton, as the Federal Financial Administration (EFV) wrote on Thursday. Central Switzerland falls below the national average and is therefore tax efficient. Zug is at the top with a load of 11.1%. The tax burden in Nidwalden and Schwyz is only slightly heavier.
Outside of central Switzerland, the tax burden is lowest in Appenzell Innerrhoden. Other cantons in eastern Switzerland and Aargau also have below-average tax burdens. Zurich ranks ninth on the list. In the most populous canton, the Treasury draws one out of every five taxable francs.
The six western Swiss cantons have the highest loads. Geneva maintains its leadership with a load of 33.7 percent. Among the cantons of German-speaking Switzerland, the cantons of Bern and Basel-Stadt are skimmed the most. In Ticino as well as in Solothurn, the Basel region and Graubünden, the tax burden is above average.
Tax burden falls in 18 cantons
The tax utilization index shows the tax burden in a canton. It shows how heavily taxable economic power – income, profit and wealth growth – is burdened by cantonal and municipal taxes and is therefore no longer suitable for private use.
Compared to the reference year 2022, 18 cantons have reduced their tax use. Basel-Stadt and Schaffhausen did this the most. The tax burden will be heavier in the eight cantons. The strongest increase was in Ticino and Appenzell Ausserrhoden.
The EFV writes that the reasons for the change in tax use are not clear at first glance. Changes in both resource potential and tax revenues played a role. Cantonal changes in the tax system may also have an impact. (SDA/shq)