Many investors who move to Switzerland hear the same sentence early on: there is no capital gains tax here. That is true for most private portfolios. But it is only one of four places where your securities meet Swiss tax, and the other three apply every year, whether you sell anything or not.
This guide goes through all four, with the figures that matter for your return. Legal status: October 2026, tax year 2026, which is the return you file in 2027.
Four questions for every portfolio
It helps to keep four questions apart. Each follows its own rule, and most surprises come from mixing them up.
- Gain: you sell a position at a profit. Usually tax free.
- Income: you receive dividends or interest. Taxed as income every year.
- Substance: your portfolio is worth something on 31 December. Subject to cantonal wealth tax every year.
- Filing: your income or wealth can oblige you to file a full tax return, even if your salary is taxed at source.
Capital gains: tax free, with clear exceptions
Federal law states it in one line: capital gains from the sale of private assets are tax free (Art. 16 para. 3 of the Federal Direct Tax Act, DBG). The Tax Harmonisation Act (StHG) obliges every canton to apply the same rule. No canton may tax private share gains, so this part does not depend on where you live.
When trading turns into a business
The tax freedom ends if the tax office treats your activity as professional securities dealing (gewerbsmässiger Wertschriftenhandel). Then gains become taxable self-employment income, and social security contributions can follow. The Federal Tax Administration (ESTV) has set out five safe-harbour criteria in its Circular No. 36 (PDF, German):
- you hold your positions for at least six months,
- your annual trading volume is no more than five times the portfolio value at the start of the year,
- realised gains stay below 50 percent of your net income,
- you do not trade on borrowed money, or your investment income exceeds the interest you pay,
- you use derivatives only to hedge existing positions.
Meet all five and you are treated as a private investor. Miss one and the tax office looks at the overall picture; there is no automatic reclassification. Some cantons publish stricter or different guidance. Our article on when share trading becomes taxable covers the criteria, recent case law and the consequences in detail.
Gains that are taxable even for private investors
A few instruments and transactions are taxed no matter how little you trade. Before you treat a gain as tax free, check what produced it.
| Situation | What is taxed |
|---|---|
| Employee shares, options, RSUs | The benefit you receive from your employer is salary (Art. 17b DBG). A later price gain on shares you hold privately is usually tax free. |
| Bonds with predominantly one-off interest (for example zero coupon bonds) | The difference between purchase price and sale or redemption value counts as investment income (Art. 20 para. 1 lit. b DBG). |
| Selling at least 20 percent of a company to a buyer who holds it as business assets | Indirect partial liquidation: if, within five years, the company pays out reserves that already existed and were distributable at the sale, were not needed for the business, and you knew or should have known that they financed the price, part of the price becomes taxable income (Art. 20a para. 1 lit. a DBG). |
| Selling shares to a company you hold at least 50 percent of afterwards | Transposition: what you receive above nominal value plus capital contribution reserves is taxable income (Art. 20a para. 1 lit. b DBG). |
| Selling control of a real estate company | Counts as an economic transfer of the properties and can trigger cantonal real estate gains tax (Art. 12 para. 2 lit. a StHG). |
For a portfolio of listed shares and funds, none of these usually applies. If you hold equity from your employer, our guide to how RSUs are taxed at vesting explains the salary part.
Dividends and interest: taxed every year
Dividends, interest and fund distributions are investment income (Art. 20 DBG). They are added to your salary and taxed at your normal income tax rate, in the year they are paid. This applies to the federal tax and to cantonal and communal tax.
Swiss dividends: 35 percent withheld up front
On dividends and interest from Swiss sources, the payer deducts 35 percent Swiss withholding tax (Verrechnungssteuer) before the money reaches you (Art. 13 of the Withholding Tax Act, VStG). It is not a final tax. If you live in Switzerland and declare the gross income in your tax return, you get it back. If you do not declare it, the claim is lost, and the claim also expires three years after the end of the year in which the dividend fell due.
Foreign dividends: reclaim abroad, credit the rest
Foreign dividends are taxable in Switzerland too. Most source countries keep a share of them. Under the relevant double tax treaty, part of that foreign tax can be reclaimed from the source country, and the part that cannot be reclaimed can be credited through form DA-1 with your return. The credit reduces your tax, not your income, and it is granted only if you apply. Our guide to the DA-1 form and the withholding tax refund walks through both claims with an example.
Accumulating funds and ETFs
A fund that reinvests its income instead of paying it out does not make that income tax free. For tax purposes it counts as received when it is credited to the fund. The amounts are published in the federal price list (ICTax) and normally appear on your bank tax statement (Steuerauszug). Capital gains contained in a fund stay tax free if the fund reports them separately.
Wealth tax: what your portfolio costs on 31 December
There is no federal wealth tax in Switzerland. Every canton levies one, and so do the municipalities. The basis is your net wealth (assets minus debts) at market value on 31 December. If you live in Switzerland, that includes your worldwide assets: a brokerage account abroad belongs in the return. Foreign real estate is the exception; it is only taken into account for the rate.
The same portfolio in nine cantons
The table shows cantonal and communal wealth tax for tax year 2026, for a single person without children and without church tax, living in the cantonal capital. Figures from the Federal Tax Administration's tax calculator, retrieved in October 2026.
| Canton (capital) | Tax-free amount, single | Wealth tax on CHF 1 million | Wealth tax on CHF 10 million |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zug | CHF 204,000 | CHF 917 | CHF 20,807 |
| Schwyz | CHF 125,000 | CHF 1,497 | CHF 16,887 |
| Zurich | none (first CHF 81,000 at a zero rate) | CHF 2,002 | CHF 55,487 |
| Aargau | CHF 130,000 | CHF 2,323 | CHF 30,979 |
| Thurgau | CHF 100,000 | CHF 2,485 | CHF 27,334 |
| St. Gallen | CHF 75,000 | CHF 3,821 | CHF 41,000 |
| Geneva | CHF 87,872 | CHF 4,546 | CHF 80,246 |
| Basel-Stadt | CHF 75,000 | CHF 5,758 | CHF 76,858 |
| Basel-Landschaft | CHF 90,000 | CHF 4,278 | CHF 53,283 |
At CHF 1 million, Basel-Stadt charges more than six times what Zug does. At CHF 10 million, the order changes: Schwyz becomes cheaper than Zug, and Geneva becomes more expensive than Basel-Stadt. Tax-free amounts and progressive scales work differently in each canton, so you cannot scale one column up or down to get the other.
An example with two moves
Take Nadia, single, no children, with a portfolio worth CHF 1 million at the end of 2026. In the city of Basel she owes CHF 5,758 wealth tax for that year. Had she lived in the town of Schwyz, it would be CHF 1,497, so CHF 4,261 less, every year, before any difference in income tax.
Her uncle Marc holds CHF 10 million and lives in the city of Geneva: CHF 80,246 for tax year 2026. In Schwyz the same wealth costs CHF 16,887. Two points to keep in mind: some cantons, including Geneva and Aargau, cap wealth tax in relation to income in certain cases, which these figures do not reflect. And moving is a decision with many more factors than one tax line.
Your own municipality shifts the result as well. With FIN's income and wealth tax calculator you can enter your municipality, income and wealth and see your figures in a minute.
Which portfolio costs you can deduct
The costs of looking after your assets reduce your taxable income. The costs of buying, selling or deciding what to buy do not.
- Deductible: custody and safe deposit fees, management fees charged by your bank or a third party, collection costs for dividends and interest.
- Not deductible: brokerage fees, issue stamp duty and other transaction costs, investment and financial advice, the cost of your tax return.
- Foreign withholding tax: deductible only where you can neither reclaim it abroad nor credit it through DA-1.
Several cantons accept a flat deduction instead of itemised costs. Zurich, for example, allows 3 per CHF 1,000 of the tax value of securities managed by a third party, up to CHF 6,000. The rules differ by canton; our tax tip on deducting wealth management fees explains how to claim them.
Taxed at source? Your portfolio can trigger a tax return
On a B permit, your salary is usually taxed at source. Your portfolio can still bring you into the ordinary procedure, for two reasons:
- Compulsory: if your investment income or your wealth exceeds a cantonal threshold. In Zurich, for example, investment income of CHF 3,000 or wealth of CHF 80,000 (CHF 160,000 for married couples) is enough. Zug names CHF 100,000 of taxable wealth, Aargau CHF 130,000 of taxable wealth (CHF 260,000 for married couples). The sources do not say which deductions count there, so we check this case by case. Aargau also levies a flat 15 percent tax on securities income as long as your securities do not exceed the wealth tax allowance.
- On request: wherever you live, the 35 percent Swiss withholding tax comes back to you only through a subsequent ordinary assessment (nachträgliche ordentliche Veranlagung, NOV). You must request it by 31 March of the following year, and once granted it stays in place for as long as you are taxed at source.
The thresholds are not directly comparable, because some cantons measure before deductions and others after. Our overview of who must file a tax return while taxed at source lists the cantonal rules for 2026. If you hold a B permit, our page on the tax return with a B permit includes a calculator for your situation.
An account you never declared
A brokerage account opened abroad years ago and never mentioned in a Swiss return is more common than people think. Apart from the wealth and income tax owed, the withholding tax refund on undeclared Swiss income is lost. If this applies to you, a penalty-free voluntary disclosure is usually the better route than waiting.
Common mistakes we see
- Declaring foreign shares in the section for Swiss withholding tax instead of claiming DA-1.
- Leaving accumulating ETFs out because they paid nothing.
- Deducting advisory fees, which the tax office then removes.
- Forgetting the foreign broker in the wealth statement.
- Missing the 31 March deadline for the ordinary assessment while taxed at source.
- Assuming the canton that charges least at CHF 1 million also charges least at CHF 10 million.
Every case is different, the potential usually is not
How much tax your portfolio costs depends on your canton and municipality, your income, your debts, the instruments you hold and how you trade. This article sets out the principles and simplified examples; it does not replace individual advice.
What does generalise: investors regularly leave money on the table, through unclaimed withholding tax, missing DA-1 credits or costs that were never deducted. A second look at your securities schedule is quickly done. If you want to plan how your wealth is structured over the years, our financial advisory looks at investment and tax together, and our tax return service takes care of the filing itself.