Editor in chief at IamExpat Media
On average, taxpayers in Switzerland pay nearly a fifth of their income in taxes to the cantons and municipalities, the highest rate since 2008. This emerges from new figures from the Federal Finance Administration.
The average cantonal and municipal tax burden in Switzerland has climbed to the highest rate recorded since the measurement began in 2008, according to a Federal Finance Administration press release.
Accordingly, taxpayers now pay an average of 19,6 percent of their income to Swiss cantons and communes - 0,7 percentage points more than in 2008. This figure excludes the direct federal tax charged by the federal government.
The figures show that the income taxes collected by cantons and municipalities increased by 0,1 percentage points in 2025 compared to 2024. Tax income increased in half of all Swiss cantons at the beginning of the year, while 10 cantons recorded a decrease, and taxation remained stable in the remaining three cantons.
It’s worth noting that the figures don’t necessarily mean that tax rates have increased, per se. Tax income can increase, for example, if the proportion of taxpayers with higher incomes - and therefore in higher tax brackets - increases.
The biggest changes in the tax burden were recorded in the cantons of Obwalden (up 0,6 percentage points) and Basel-Stadt (down 0,6 percentage points), but overall the picture remains similar to the previous year: Vaud and Geneva have the highest average cantonal and municipal tax burdens in Switzerland, at 25,6 and 25,5 percent, respectively, while Zug has the lowest at 12 percent.
As of 2025, the tax burden is above average in seven Swiss cantons: Vaud, Geneva, Bern, Neuchâtel and Fribourg. The lowest tax burdens are recorded in the central cantons of Zug, Schwyz, Uri, Nidwalden, Obwalden and Glarus.