The National Council did not accept the Federal Council's proposal, which provided for a return to practice in income tax for the taxation of capital gains realised on the sale of agricultural and forestry real estate, as was the case until 2011.
According to the dispatch of 11 March 2016 to the Federal Act on the Taxation of Agricultural and Forestry Real Estate (transaction 16.031), income tax should only be charged on profits up to a maximum of the amount of the investment costs, i.e. the recovered depreciation. The capital gain should in future be tax-free again for direct federal tax. In the case of cantonal and communal taxes, the capital gain should be subject to real estate gains tax in all cantons. The proposal is based on a motion referred by parliament and would, in the view of the Federal Council, have led to unequal treatment vis-à-vis self-employed persons not working as farmers and thus violated the constitutional principle of taxation according to economic performance. For reasons of financial policy and constitutional law, the Federal Council waived its request for approval of the bill.
The Council of States had already rejected the proposal in its meeting on 12 December 2016. The National Council also did not respond to the bill in its session of 14 June 2017, which means that the matter is definitely closed.
The verbatim transcripts are available here.
