At its meeting on May 6, 2026, the Federal Council launched a public consultation on an amendment to the Ordinance on Minimum Taxation. In doing so, it is implementing two identical parliamentary motions. These motions call for the application of an OECD administrative guideline one year later than provided for internationally.
Since January 1, 2024, large, internationally active companies in Switzerland have been subject to the OECD’s 15 percent minimum tax. The Federal Council has implemented this requirement through the Minimum Tax Ordinance, based on the constitutional provision adopted by the people and the cantons in 2023. The ordinance ensures that the OECD model rules are implemented in Switzerland in accordance with the model rules, thereby preventing companies in Switzerland from being subject to foreign minimum tax requirements and increased legal uncertainty.
In motions 25.4392 and 25.4399, Parliament calls for a deviation from the OECD Model Rules on one specific point. Specifically, this concerns an OECD administrative guideline that specifies how deferred tax assets from the period prior to the introduction of the minimum tax are to be taken into account when calculating the effective tax rate. The guideline was adopted and published by the member states in January 2025, but is considered an interpretation of the Model Rules effective as of the entry into force of the minimum tax and thus applies to all fiscal years starting in 2024.
However, according to the motions, this guideline is to be applied in Switzerland only starting with the 2025 fiscal year, because the 2024 fiscal year had already ended by the time the guideline was published. Due to the deviation from the internationally agreed OECD rules, the Federal Council had recommended rejecting the motions.
For the majority of companies affected by the minimum tax, the amendment to the ordinance is unlikely to have any impact. For some companies, however, it may lead to a reduction in the supplementary tax levied in Switzerland (QDMTT) in 2024—though in some cases, this relief may be offset by a (foreign) international supplementary tax (IIR). This is the case, for example, for Swiss business units of corporate groups with their tax headquarters in the EU. The overall tax burden for this corporate group thus remains unchanged, but the administrative burden for filing returns abroad increases.
For the 2024 tax period, the amendment to the ordinance may result in a one-time decrease in revenue from the Swiss supplementary tax; it is not possible to quantify this shortfall.
The consultation period runs until July 14, 2026.
The amendments are scheduled to take effect immediately following the Federal Council’s decision on the amendment to the ordinance.
The press release and other documents can be found here.
