There’s a nice surprise when talking about withholding tax.
In accordance with the FTA’s publication of the document ‘Structure and record formats of withholding tax rates in payroll accounting systems’, effective from 1 January 2027 (in German) https://www.estv.admin.ch/dam/de/sd-web/RstQtKFUkAUH/qst-tarife-recordformate-loehne-2027-de.pdf there are two main points:
- The median wage (Medianlohn) rises by CHF 50 to CHF 5’925
- In the Canton of Ticino, the additional tariff codes W, X, Y and Z are used. The entire alphabet has now been used up. The tariff codes W, X, Y and Z are defined as follows: (free translation)
W
Tax rate for persons liable to withholding tax who are resident abroad, who do not fall within the scope of the CH-IT cross-border commuter agreement, and who meet the requirements for tax code A
X
Tax rate for persons liable to withholding tax who are resident abroad, who do not fall within the scope of the CH-IT cross-border commuter agreement, and who meet the requirements for tax code B
Y
Tax rate for persons liable to withholding tax who are resident abroad, who do not fall within the scope of the CH-IT cross-border commuter agreement, and who meet the requirements for tax code C
Z
Tax rate for persons liable to withholding tax who are resident abroad, who do not fall within the scope of the CH-IT cross-border commuter agreement, and who meet the requirements for tax code H
It will be necessary to check whether the manufacturers of payroll accounting software will be able to implement this so close to the end of the year.
In addition, the Federal Supreme Court judgement BGer 9C_659/2025 of 10 September 2026 has recently been published. In this case, a taxpayer had overpaid withholding tax over several years due to an error on the part of their employer. The taxpayer only realised this error several years later, i.e. well after 31 March of the following year. The Federal Supreme Court ruled that taxpayers should not have to bear the consequences of errors made by third parties.
According to correspondence with the FTA, the extent to which procedural adjustments will be made is currently under review.
You can find out more about the background to these new tariff codes and other changes in the webinar ‘Updates for employers at the turn of the year 2026/2027’, taking place on 27 November 2026 from 10.00 to 11.30 am in German language
or
in the webinar on 12 January 2027 from 12.00 to 13.30
Link to all seminars in German: https://www.zulaufgmbh.ch/veranstaltungen-workshops/
