Direct federal tax and value added tax are the Confederation's main source of receipts, and make up around one third of receipts. Withholding tax, mineral oil tax and stamp duty also contribute to federal receipts.
2026 receipts
The receipts from direct federal tax and the supplementary tax account for 38.1% of budgeted receipts.
Direct federal tax (32.7 bn) is levied on the income of natural persons and on the net profit of legal entities. The proportions of income tax and profit tax receipts are more or less balanced at 48% and 52%, respectively, of direct federal tax. The 2026 receipts are derived mainly from taxable income and profits from 2025.
Starting in 2026, receipts from the supplementary tax (1.6 bn) should be generated with the implementation of the OECD minimum tax rate. The profits of large multinational enterprises (MNEs) are to be taxed at a rate of 15%.
VAT accounts for 31.2% of total 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.
Other consumption taxes consist essentially of receipts from mineral oil tax, tobacco duty, beer tax and spirits tax. This tax category accounts for 8.6% of total receipts, and is continuing to trend downward.
The increase in the number of electric vehicles is causing a decline in mineral oil tax receipts, while lower alcohol consumption is leading to a drop in receipts from beer tax and spirits tax. In 2026, each of the receipt types mentioned will fall by around 4%.
Withholding tax accounts for 7.4% of total receipts. Designed as a safeguard tax for direct taxes, withholding tax is intended to ensure that income from movable capital assets is taxed (especially dividends and interest income). Estimated withholding tax receipts represent the portion of incoming payments for which no refund is likely to be requested and which will therefore remain with the Confederation.
Transportation levies comprise heavy vehicle charges, motorway tax (vignette) and automobile duty. They account for 2.9% of total receipts.
Stamp duty accounts 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 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. Its trend is relatively stable.
Other federal receipts account for 8.9% of total receipts. They include other tax receipts, such as CO2 tax (1.1 bn) and import duties (0.7 bn), and investment receipts, 80% of which come from dividend payments associated with federal stakes (0.8 bn; mainly Swisscom and Swiss Post). In addition, there are current nontax receipts, which consist primarily of receipts from royalties and concessions, such as the SNB profit distribution (1 bn), as well as receipts from exchange transactions (1.4 bn; e.g. military service exemption tax) and financial receipts (0.4 bn; e.g. interest receipts).
Development of 2026 receipts
Receipts of 90.0 billion are budgeted for 2026, which is 5.0% more than in the preceding budget. However, it is currently estimated that receipts will be higher than budgeted in fiscal 2025 (+1.9 bn), due primarily to the surge in direct federal tax receipts.
Relative to the estimate, receipts will grow by 2.7% in 2026 (+2.4 bn). This is largely attributable to the fact that receipts from the Swiss supplementary tax will be levied for the first time in 2026 (+1.6 bn).
With regard to direct federal tax, natural persons, receipts are expected to grow by 1.5% in 2026 relative to the estimate, which has been revised upward following a sharp increase in net household income in previous years. Compared with the 2025 budget, receipts for 2026 are 7.6% higher.
Receipts from direct federal tax, legal entities were higher than expected in the first few months of 2025, given the temporary additional receipts from the taxation of profits generated by companies in the canton of Geneva in 2022 and 2023. The estimate for 2025 has thus been revised upward (+0.9 bn). These receipts are expected to reach 17.1 billion in the 2026 budget year, which is 0.3 billion, or 1.6%, more than estimated for 2025.
The estimated value added tax receipts for 2025 have been revised downward, due to the adjustment of the anticipated nominal GDP growth rate (1.5% vs. 2.8% in the 2025 budget). The amount projected for 2026 is 28.1 billion. This corresponds to an increase of 1.6%, which is close to the nominal GDP growth rate (1.7%).
Data
Detailed data for longer periods are available under the following links:
