Individual taxation – What changes for married couples?
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For a long time, Switzerland has penalized married couples by making them pay more taxes. But this will soon be over! In March 2026, Swiss citizens voted to switch to individual taxation. With that new system, married and unmarried couples will be taxed in the same way.
But do you know exactly what changes? The changes are more complex than expected. And not every married couple will be better off with this change. In this article, we will go over all the changes and the winners and losers of this change.
The change to end the marriage penalty
In March 2026, we voted to replace joint taxation with individual taxation. This change was accepted. We currently do not know when this will come into effect. The implementation is currently planned for January 1st, 2032, as cited by the federal government. From now to this date, nothing is changing. This date might come earlier after cantons have discussed it thoroughly with the confederation.
Currently, Swiss married couples are taxed with a joint taxation. This means that both incomes are added together, and this is taxed as one taxable income. The issue with that is that high incomes are usually taxed more than low incomes. Therefore, a couple with two decent incomes will generally be taxed more if they are married because the two decent incomes are added together into a high income. This is one of the main disadvantages of marriage in Switzerland.
This is precisely what this votation wanted to avoid by the introduction of the individual taxation system to replace the joint taxation.
Changes with individual taxation
With individual taxation, a married couple will each pay taxes individually on their income.
- There will be two net incomes.
- There will be two sets of deductions.
- Each resulting taxable income will be taxed individually.
The same will be applied for their assets for wealth tax. Generally, assets will be divided by two (based on civil law ownership), and each person will be taxed individually on half. And deductions will also be divided by two and applied to each spouse.
This does not necessarily mean we will receive two sets of tax bills. But it means that the computation will be done on each taxable income individually.
However, if this was the only change, everybody would be paying less taxes. So, in a good Swiss way, the new system makes some compromises, and some deductions are gone.
- The deduction for dual income is removed. This deduction was especially made to combat the unfairness of the system, so it makes no sense anymore.
- The deduction for married couples is removed as well. Again, the purpose of this deduction was to make it fairer, so it is not necessary anymore.
Additionally, one major difference is that there is only one set of tax thresholds (tariffs) now. Before, there was one for singles and one for married couples. Now, it was adjusted, and only a single one was kept.
Another significant change is the federal deduction for children. Before, this deduction was 6,800 CHF per child. With this change, it will be raised to 12,000 CHF. For married couples, the 12,000 CHF deduction will be split equally between both spouses.
One other change that many people did not notice is that retirement withdrawals will not be added together anymore. This will make retirement planning easier since both spouses can do a second or third pillar withdrawal the same year without any negative impact. This will simplify optimization for staggered withdrawals. On the other hand, since deductions are done to each income separately, two third pillar contributions may not make sense anymore for a couple with a high and a low income.
Overall, it is great that the unfairness between married and unmarried couples is gone. Being married should not be penalized. Another good thing about this system is that it is much simpler. And I strongly believe that a simple tax system is better. However, there are more changes than people expect in this implementation. It means it is not always obvious to know whether we will pay more or less taxes with the change.
Winners
We can start with the winners of the tax reform.
The main winners are married couples with two high incomes. Since they are not adding up their incomes together, the tax progression is much lower.
For example, a couple with two net incomes of 120,000 CHF each and 1 child will pay about 6,443 CHF instead of 12,240 CHF before (a difference of 5,797 CHF). They will divide their federal taxes by two.
Even couples with lower incomes can still benefit from this tax reform. Retirees will generally pay less federal taxes with this.
For example, a couple of retirees with two net incomes of 50,000 CHF each and no children will pay about 409 CHF instead of 792 CHF before (a difference of 383 CHF). They will divide their federal taxes by two.
So overall, people that were unfairly taxed before are now in a better place.
Losers
There will be some winners, but there will also be some losers from this change.
In fact, single-income married couples will pay more federal taxes than they did before. The reason is that the income will get lower deductions than it did before. So, you are left with a higher taxable income. This can be slightly mitigated by the higher deduction for children if you have multiple children.
For example, a couple with one net income of 120,000 CHF and 1 child will pay about 3,221 CHF instead of 1,539 CHF before. This is a difference of 1,682 CHF. They will pay more than double in federal taxes.
Another example is a couple with two incomes but a very large difference between both. If you have a large difference between both incomes, you end up paying more taxes because some deductions apply to the low income where it is not necessary.
For example, a couple with one net income of 200,000 CHF and one net income of 30,000 CHF will pay 11,614 CHF instead of 11,096 CHF before (a difference of 518 CHF).
This also means that high-income individual earners will also see their taxes increase.
What about cantons?
Until now, we have only talked about federal taxes. So, what will change with cantons?
Currently, as of 2026, we do not know. The tax reform states that cantons and municipalities must abide by this new system no later than by 2032.
Since cantons are responsible for collecting tax information, each canton will have to implement this. Cantons will have to switch to the new system. This means they cannot do joint taxation for the canton and individual taxation for the federal taxes.
It is very likely that some cantons will change some deductions or thresholds to adjust their taxes for the new system. But each canton will be different, and no canton has yet communicated details.
Currently, we can expect that winners and losers in federal taxes will be the same in cantonal taxes, but it may not be the case eventually.
Calculator
To help you see the impact of this change, we have written a calculator for the federal taxes with the new system. This individual taxation calculator lets you know whether you will pay higher or lower federal taxes.
Our situation and strategy
As another example, we can take the The Poor Swiss household. We are married and have one child.
We are unfortunately going to pay more federal taxes (about 750 CHF more based on current net salaries). The reason is that we are in this category where we have a large income and a low income. Another disadvantage is that we currently have two third pillars. But this will not be really useful after the reform because paying a full third pillar contribution for a small income makes little sense.
If everything stays the same when the tax reform comes into force, we will likely stop our second set of third pillar accounts.
One good thing is that since Mrs. The Poor Swiss wants to work more, her new income will not be taxed as badly as now.
FAQ
Will we have to fill out two tax declarations per couple?
As per the tax reform announcement, a married couple will have to fill out two separate tax returns.
Who will profit from individual taxation?
Generally, married couples with relatively similar incomes will pay less federal taxes after the tax reform.
Who will pay more federal taxes with individual taxation?
Generally, married couples with unbalanced income or only one income will pay more taxes after the tax reform.
Conclusion
Not penalizing married couples with more taxes is a great change. The new system is fairer and simpler. On the other hand, the changes are more numerous than people expect. Also, some people will pay more federal taxes than they used to.
We have tried to make it easier for you to know what will change and how this will impact you. We believe that our calculator will help estimate how much more (or less) taxes each couple will pay.
Unfortunately, at this point, we do not yet know how cantons will implement these changes. The cantonal changes may have a significant impact as well. I truly hope that we will still have to fill out a single tax return in the software and the software does the splitting. Otherwise, it is really dumb from an efficiency standpoint. Unfortunately, looking at the wording on the tax reform, it looks unlikely. But we have to wait to know that for sure.
What about you? What do you think about this tax reform?
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It’s about time Switzerland finally did away with the marriage tax penalty. I remember following the vote closely back in March 2026, but I didn’t realize the transition to individual taxation was going to be this complex. I’m really curious to see how they plan to implement the actual calculations to make sure married and unmarried couples are truly treated equally.
I was also surprised by the complexity of the change.
The implementation is rather simple now: whether you are married or not will literally change nothing since you do two tax returns.
What would be more interesting to know is how they came up with the exact new thresholds.
The new changes unfairly target married couples where only one is earning such that only one salary is supporting a higher load. There needs to be a proper accounting for married one earner vs married both earning vs not married. The pendulum seems to swing from one extreme to another instead of balancing.
From the standpoint of parenting, I prefer that at least one parent is at home (its a choice that should be respected both ways, not just in one direction because we have a population decline). Parenting does not work on a work day type reliable schedule. There are times when your children don’t need attention and there are times when they do. If both parents are working, the times when they need you, go unfulfilled.
I remember once, my son was walking home and being bullied. Had I been 40 mins away in an office, he would have had to fend for himself. Another observation is that when children are alone at home, it is an open window for wasting time on social media, gaming, porn etc. They just need to know that one adult (parent of grandparent) is somewhere in the house. This is indirect stress management and discipline education.
Penalized under the current system of family taxation are also married couples where one spouse lives outside Switzerland. That spouse’s income is added to the CH-based spouse’s income to determine the tax rate, even the non-CH spouse has no Swiss tax liability. The abolition of family taxation should result in a lower rate for the CH-based taxpayer in such couples.
Hi Scott
Interesting, I was not aware of this case. Isn’t that double taxation since the abroad spouse will be taxed twice? That’s weird.
Hi Baptiste,
In theory this is not double taxation, because the income and wealth of the non-CH partner is only used to determine the rate, that income and wealth is not taxed in CH. However I still find this practice questionable, because it has the effect of raising the tax take on the overall earnings of the couple. Deductions and so forth take no account of the fact that the couple face the expense of maintaining two households.
Canton Bern has a relatively clear explanation of how this situation and relevant deductions are handled: https://www.taxinfo.sv.fin.be.ch/taxinfo/84c5fc0a-8c89-4e18-8dc4-4cd2ccf59081
Oh, I see what you mean. They use both incomes to compute the rates and use that rate on the CH income. I have heard of cases like that.
I agree that it’s very debatable.
Hi Baptiste,
Thisis very helpful! I am really happy that finally couples were both partners are making high income (around 120k each per year) won’t be penalized for working.
So this change is really benefiting married couples where both work and bring similar income. This is fair, otherwise why should you be penalized to pay more taxes only because you both earn more? That’s ridiculous. No one says out loud that high income earners ‘pay’ with stressful jobs, 50+ hours working week, not to mentioned the CHF spent on education before (not from parents pocket).
Hi Alex
Thanks, I am glad this is helpful.
In some sense, it makes sense that higher incomes pay more taxes, but only to an extent. And indeed, considering dual-high-income as one extra-high-income made no sense in the past. And as you said, there is generally a reason for earning a high income.
Hi Baptiste !
It seems to me that the easiest way to get rid of the “married tax penalty” would have been to adjust the married tax rates !
Now what do we get ? Married couples get to divide shared assets by two (half a child, anyone ?) and file separate tax returns. What fun ! As I’ve told students before, the real reason computers became popular is because it enables the creation of bigger bureaucracies more quickly.
I file my taxes using the old paper form (out of defiance, I admit), and even though I always file by the deadline I receive my “avis de taxation” later and later every year (I received my 2024 avis de taxation the last week of *January 2026* !
I believe once again we’re facing unnecessary extra complications for what coukd have been an easy fix.
Your thoughts?
Hi professor :)
I do not mind the new computation system. But the implementation is dumb.
All the data is already in the current tax declaration. All there is to know is to change the way the taxes are computed, make two sets of taxes, and it’s done.
Being forced to file two tax returns is an efficiency nightmare.
And as you said, the tax offices are already underwater. If they have to process two tax returns per couple, it’s only going to make everything worse.
This is already the case for the unmarried couples with a child – they have to declare half of assets and childcare deductions. A lot of people complain about having to fill in more tax declarations but I don’t see why it is such a burden. If you use the online system you can pre-fill the form with your previous year data and get done with your declaration in a couple of hours.
Hi Baptiste
What about AHV payments upon retirement, where currently a married couple is limited to 150% of an unmarried couple, does this also change?
Thanks N
Hi Anonymous,
No, this disadvantage of marriage currently remains.
They didn’t actually fix the ‘marriage penalty’; they just raised taxes under the guise of modernization. Penalizing couples who love their children, where one prefers to spend more time with them than with their employer.
Some of the households indeed got more taxes, like we will. But many households are paying less taxes.
What happens to singles? Will they now have to pay more to cover the deficit caused by the loss of revenue from couples with two high incomes?
Hi GP
It depends on income. The tax tariffs have changed for singles as well (since there is only one set of thresholds now). It looks like some high-income individuals will indeed pay more taxes, like some single-income households.
Hello Baptiste,
What do you mean stop your second pillar? As in, all the second pillars for one of the couple members?
If i am not wrong, you have 5 -3a pillars. If i am correct, you want to keep only 1 person with 5-3a pillars.
Thank you.
Hi Theodor
I meant stopping our “second set of third pillar accounts”, basically we will likely not contribute to my wife’s 3a accounts anymore if she keeps the same income.
I will make that clearer in the article; “second third pillar” is definitely not great wording.
Hello,
Thank you for the detailed explanation. May I kindly ask you to help me understand how will I be affected as a single parent with 100% Obhut of my son?
Thank you very much.
Hi Anamaria
In this case, since you have 100% custody, you should keep the 100% tax deduction (12,000 CHF now).
Whether you will pay less or more taxes depends on your income. Low to medium should pay the same or less taxes, while high single-income incomes may have to pay more.
Hi, could you please elaborate why contribution for a small income makes little sense and also give an example.
Thanks,
E.
Hi E
Basically, a contribution to the third pillar is only as good as the marginal tax rate because that rate tells how much of a return (in tax savings) you are going to make.
If you have a small income, you have a small marginal tax rate, and then a 3a is not that great.
You can check our calculator: Third Pillar Contribution
Simply put, if your marginal tax rate is below 15%, the 3a is not that interesting and you are better off investing in your free assets.