Federal Law on Stamp Duties

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Basic data
Title: Federal Act of June 27, 1973 on Stamp Duties
Short title: Stamp Duty Act
Abbreviation: StG
Type: Federal law
Scope: Switzerland , Liechtenstein
Legal matter: Private law
Systematic
legal collection (SR) :		 641.10
Original version from: June 27, 1973
Entry into force on: July 1, 1974
Last change by: AS 2012 811 (PDF; 144 kB)
Effective date of the
last change:		 March 1, 2012
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The Swiss Confederation rises based on the Federal Law of 27 June 1973 on stamp duty (StG) so-called stamp duty , a form of legal transactions tax on the emission and trade in securities . In particular, the so-called issue tax is levied on the issue of securities such as shares . Since March 1, 2012, it has no longer been levied on the issue of bonds and money market papers that were exempted from taxation as part of a legislative approach to solving the too-big-to-fail problem. On the other hand, the so-called turnover tax is levied on trading in securities such as shares and bonds, provided that a securities dealer is involved in the transaction as a contracting party or as an intermediary. So it is a form of stock exchange sales tax . However, the law recognizes a large number of exceptions relating to the person of the taxpayer, in particular commercial securities dealers are exempt from tax liability. The implementation of the federal law on stamp duties is described in more detail in the ordinance of 3 December 1973 on stamp duties (StV). The revenue from stamp duties in 2010 amounted to around CHF 2.8 billion and thus accounted for around 4.5% of the federal tax revenue.

Issue tax (Art. 5 ff. Tax Law)

General

The issue tax is levied on the issue of participation rights, namely shares, participation certificates , profit participation certificates , GmbH shares and cooperative shares, or the increase in their nominal value by a domestic issuer. Grants from the members of the cooperative or shareholders as well as so-called shell trading, i.e. the sale of a majority of a company that has been brought into liquid form, are equivalent to the issue of participation rights. The levy is 1% and is calculated from the consideration that the company receives for the participation rights. However, the calculation base cannot be less than the nominal value. In the case of grants, the amount of the grant serves as the basis for calculation; in the case of shell trading, the net assets at the time of the change of hands, but at least the nominal value of all participation rights. On the issue of participation certificates, which are free of charge, the issuing tax is a flat rate of CHF 3 per certificate. The issuer of the taxable participation rights is liable for the tax. The tax liability is to be paid within 30 days after the occurrence, namely the entry of the participation rights in the commercial register .

Capital increases in the case of an open restructuring and in the case of certain restructurings such as corporate mergers are particularly excluded from the issue tax. Since March 1, 2012, no issue tax has been levied on the issue of bonds and money market papers. There is also an exemption of CHF 1,000,000, on which no issuing tax is payable in the event of a foundation or a capital increase.

Examples

Müller AG increases its share capital from CHF 2,000,000 to CHF 2,500,000. You must therefore pay 5,000 issuance tax (1% of 500,000).

Meier AG increases its share capital from CHF 100,000 to CHF 200,000. Since the amount is below 1,000,000, Meier AG does not have to pay any issue tax.

Sales tax (Art. 13 ff. Tax Law)

General

The transfer tax is levied on the transfer of securities against payment. In particular, trading in shares, bonds, GmbH ordinary shares, cooperative shares, participation certificates, profit participation certificates and shares in collective investment schemes is taxed, provided that a domestic securities dealer is involved in the transaction as a contracting party or as an intermediary. The levy is 1.5 ‰ for domestic and 3.0 ‰ of the purchase price for foreign securities. The securities dealer is liable to pay the fee and the due date is 30 days. Usually, if the securities dealer is acting on behalf of a third party, the tax will be passed on to his client.

However, the law recognizes a large number of exceptions. The two most important exceptions are, firstly, all transactions that are subject to the issue tax and, secondly, all transactions that are carried out from the trading portfolio of a professional securities dealer (the professional securities dealer, on the other hand, is taxable for securities in his fixed assets). In addition, money market paper, the business of foreign central banks and social security funds, the business of domestic and foreign collective investment schemes and foreign bonds, if at least one contracting party is of foreign origin, are not subject to the turnover tax.

example

A instructs its bank X to buy shares worth CHF 1,000,000 in domestic company Y. Shares are taxable certificates and bank X is a securities dealer within the meaning of the law, acting as an intermediary. The bank is therefore obliged to pay the sales tax in the amount of 1.5 ‰ of the purchase price - if Y is a domestic company. The bank will pass the CHF 1'500 on to A.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Applicable Swiss law. On the website of the State Administration of the Principality of Liechtenstein, accessed on March 15, 2019