All countries in the EU and Switzerland, are part of the VAT legislation requirements. And many other countries around the world have similar VAT systems. According to Swiss legislation, foreign companies need to be registered for VAT, but some companies can be part of an exception in case of services that they provide.
Recently Russian Federation and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg have signed protocol regarding the amendments in the double taxation rules. This Protocol was negotiated following a request from the Russian Federation due to a change in its conventional policy regarding withholding taxes on dividends and interest.
In March 2020, Vladimir Putin, the president of the Russian Federation, addressed the nation to announce the main measures being taken to tackle coronavirus. As part of that, Vladimir Putin instructed the government to quickly initiate negotiations with foreign jurisdictions to amend Russia’s current DTTs to set the minimum withholding tax rate on dividends and interest paid from Russia at 15%.
The calculation of the tax rates in Switzerland is based on the net income of the taxpayer. Like in most other European countries, there are several tax deductions that can be made when a tax declaration is filed in Switzerland. These will reduce the taxable income and consequently the value of tax that needs to be paid diminishes significantly.
The Swiss government has gone the extra mile in leveraging low corporate tax rates as a competitive advantage. In Switzerland, corporate tax rates vary depending on the canton where you are operating your business.
On the 19th of May 2019, Swiss voters voted in favour of the Federal Act on Tax Reform and AHV Financing (TRAF)—confirming the corporate taxation reform. The main purpose of the reform is to bring tax legislation in line with international standards and to remove Switzerland from the EU “Grey List”, which it has been in since December 2017. This list includes states that are under EU control and have agreed to cooperate to improve the tax system.
Gift tax is a specific kind of taxation existing in Switzerland. This kind of taxes usually levy on gifts received by the swiss residents and can vary from each Cantone. Luckily, not all gifts are taxable in Switzerland. Gift taxes were imposed by the government in order for heirs to stop avoiding taxation, in case they receive an immovable property or great amount as an inheritance. The gift tax almost applies to every Canton except for Schwyz and Lucerne, these Cantons are tax exempted under the swiss legislation. But many locals believe that a gift tax is unfair and as for many countries such a definition is don’t even exist.
In order to understand the Swiss tax system, it is important to understand that due to its federal structure (26 cantons and approximately 2,300 municipalities) there is no uniform taxation system. Depending on the tax type, some are levied exclusively at a federal level such Value Added Tax (VAT), and some at both levels: federal and cantonal such as income tax.
Here is a list with 10 Swiss cantons with the lowest taxes in Switzerland and also around the world.
