Shares in %
2024 receipts
Value added tax: 26 930 mn
Direct federal tax: 29 805 mn
Withholding tax: 6 913 mn
Mineral oil tax: 4 383 mn
Stamp duty: 2 398 mn
Tobacco duty: 1 997 mn
Other tax receipts: 6 819 mn
Nontax receipts: 3 978 mn
Investment receipts: 994 mn
VAT accounted for 32.0% of receipts, making it the most important source of receipts for the Confederation, together with direct federal tax. Domestic consumption is taxed. This includes the acquisition of domestic goods and services, as well as imports. Exports are not subject to VAT.
Direct federal tax accounted for 35.4% of receipts. Together with value added tax, it was thus the most important source of receipts for the Confederation. Direct federal tax is levied on the income of natural persons and on the net revenue of legal entities. The proportions of income tax and profit tax receipts were more or less balanced at 48% and 52%, respectively, of direct federal tax. The 2024 receipts were derived mainly from taxable income and profits from 2023. Starting in 2026, receipts from the supplementary tax are to be expected with the implementation of the OECD minimum tax rate.
Withholding tax accounted for 8.2% of total receipts. Withholding tax is designed as a safeguard tax for direct taxes, and is intended to ensure that income from movable capital assets is taxed (especially dividends and interest income). The estimated withholding tax receipts are made up of incoming payments that cannot be reclaimed (reporting procedure for intragroup dividend distributions) and incoming payments that may be partially reclaimed. The receipts from partially reclaimable incoming payments are estimated using an empirical value (median of the last five completed tax years). This share is unlikely to be reclaimed and should remain with the Confederation as receipts. In addition, adjustments to prior year estimates may impact receipts.
The consumption tax levied on petroleum and fuel, among other things, amounted to 5.2% of total receipts in 2024. Around three quarters of these receipts are earmarked for road transportation and aviation (60% of the basic tax and all of the surtax). Receipts have been trending downward since 2008. On the one hand, vehicle engines are becoming more efficient, and on the other hand, the number of electric vehicles is increasing.
Stamp duty accounted for 2.8% of receipts. Transfer stamp tax, which accounts for more than half of stamp duty, is levied on purchases and sales of Swiss and foreign securities. The revenue from transfer stamp tax depends primarily on the volume of taxable securities turnover of Swiss securities dealers. The issue tax on the accumulation of net assets/equity fluctuates considerably, as it depends on the equity requirements of companies. The third component is insurance premium stamp duty, which is collected on certain insurance premiums, and whose trend is relatively stable.
Tobacco duty accounted for 2.4% of receipts. It is levied on domestically manufactured and imported tobacco products and substitutes. The revenue is used to co-finance the federal AHV contribution. Receipts have been trending downward since 2012, falling by around 2% annually.
Other tax receipts consist essentially of transportation levies (e.g. heavy vehicle charge and motorway tax), incentive fees (e.g. CO2 tax), the grid supplement fund and import duties. They accounted for 8.1% of total receipts. Effective since 2024, import duties on industrial products have been abolished. Only customs duties on agricultural products remain.
Nontax receipts accounted for 4.7%. Among other things, they include receipts from royalties and concessions, such as the base amount of the SNB profit distribution. There were no such profit distributions in 2024, and only the base amount (667 mn) is budgeted from 2025 onward. Nontax receipts also include items such as the military service exemption tax, cantonal contributions (e.g. cantonal contributions to the railway infrastructure fund), miscellaneous receipts (e.g. building receipts) and financial receipts (e.g. interest receipts).
Investment receipts accounted for roughly 1.2% of total federal receipts. In 2024, they included the dividends paid by public enterprises (e.g. Swisscom, Swiss Post, RUAG), repayments of loans and investment contributions, and the proceeds from the sale of tangible fixed assets. The sale of RUAG International business segments enabled the Confederation to receive a special dividend of 150 million in 2024 (2023: 200 mn). This was recognized as extraordinary receipts.
Development of 2024 receipts
in CHF bn and % of GDP
Note: data for 2025 to 2028 in accordance with 2025 federal decree with integrated task and financial plan for 2026 to 2028
In 2024, receipts surged by 5.8% (+4.6 bn), thereby considerably outstripping nominal GDP growth (+2.2%). As a result, the receipt ratio rose from 9.9% to 10.2% of GDP.
Development of selected 2024 receipts
in CHF mn and %
In 2024, total receipts grew by 4.6 billion (+5.8%) to 84.2 billion. This growth was driven primarily by the sharp rise in receipts from direct federal tax (+2.0 bn), VAT (+1.8 bn) and withholding tax (+0.5 bn).
Direct federal tax receipts surged by 2.0 billion (+7.1%) in 2024. Receipts generated by the income tax of natural persons were up by 0.9 billion. This excellent result was largely attributable to higher receipts from earlier tax periods. However, those from the main tax period (2023) were also up. Receipts from taxes on the net revenue of legal entities jumped by 1.1 billion in 2024. It was above all the receipts from the main tax period (2023) that soared (+0.7 bn).
Withholding tax receipts totaled 6.9 billion in 2024, representing a year-on-year increase of 7.2%. This was due essentially to the high level of inflows, some of which are retained by the Confederation. Moreover, estimate corrections concerning earlier years led to a rise of 0.2 billion.
Value added tax (VAT) receipts climbed by 7.1% to 26.9 billion in 2024. This was much more substantial than the rise in nominal GDP, given the increase in the VAT rate in favor of AHV as of January 1, 2024 (AHV21 reform), which took the standard VAT rate from 7.7% to 8.1%. Without this special factor, these receipts would have risen by 2.9%, which would have been closer to nominal GDP growth.
Data
Detailed data for longer periods are available under the following links:
- Link data portal
- Link Open Government Data
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Last modification 25.03.2025