On May 4, 2018, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) published Circular Letter 37A (KS 37A) concerning the tax treatment of employee stock option plans at the employer.
The Kreisschreiben 37A: "Steuerliche Behandlung von Mitarbeiterbeteiligungen bei der Arbeitgeberin" (1-037A-D-2018-d of 4 May 2018) is intended (as a supplement to KS 37 of 22 July 2013 on the taxation of employee shares) to provide an overview of the main features of the current practice of tax treatment of employee shares at the level of the employer.
According to KS 37A, there are various possibilities with regard to the procedure for obtaining the participation rights as well as for structuring the legal relationships between the individual parties involved in the creation and implementation of an employee participation plan, which are presented in KS together with corresponding examples.
All circular letters of the FTA can be downloaded here.
