09.03.2026
The marriage penalty will soon be a thing of the past. With the introduction of individual taxation, married couples will in future be treated the same as unmarried couples. What does this mean specifically for filing your tax return? Who will benefit from the reform? Who can expect additional costs? And when will the new method of taxation kick in? This overview provides the most important answers.
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For years, the political catchphrase “marriage penalty” has been criticized in Switzerland for the fact that married couples in certain circumstances pay more tax than unmarried couples who live in comparable economic circumstances. This is due to progressive taxation. High-income couples with similar incomes were particularly affected.
On 8 March 2026, the Swiss electorate decided to introduce individual taxation. This abolishes this tax disadvantage – and ends the system of joint taxation.
Until now, married couples and couples in registered partnerships were taxed jointly, i.e. the income/assets of the spouses were added together. As a result of this tax system, married couples would usually end up either paying more or less tax than unmarried couples in the same economic circumstances. This is because unmarried people are taxed individually in Switzerland, even if they live together as a couple. Their income/assets are not added together.
If both spouses earned similarly high incomes, joint taxation often led to a higher tax burden at federal level and in some cantons. In colloquial terms, this is known as a “marriage penalty”. If income was unequally distributed, married couples often benefited from lower taxes compared to unmarried couples. This is known as a “marriage bonus”.
Following the adoption of the Federal Act on Individual Taxation, married couples will be taxed individually in future. This means that each person will submit their own tax return and pay tax on their own income, e.g. salary and pension, separately.
The assets and income they generate will also be recorded individually and divided according to ownership. For example, joint bank accounts will be counted as half each, while for real estate, the entry in the land register will be definitive. Each taxpayer applies deductions separately. Child-related deductions are divided equally between the parents in the case of direct federal tax.
In future, the same tax rate will apply to married and unmarried persons. In order to ease the burden on families and cushion additional burdens, the child deduction from direct federal tax will be increased from 6,800 previously to 12,000 francs.
The impact of individual taxation on married couples depends primarily on how income is distributed among the spouses. If they both earn similarly high incomes, the reform will likely mean that the couple ends up paying less direct federal tax than they do today.
In contrast, married couples with only one income or a very unequal income distribution are likely to pay more direct federal tax. This is especially true if they have children, even if the increase in the child deduction counteracts this. The increased/decreased tax burdens associated with the reform are likely to be greater the higher the married couple’s income is.
Unmarried people are already taxed individually. However, the reform will affect them. The adjustment of the tax rate for direct federal tax means that the majority of unmarried taxpayers will pay less tax. People on low and medium incomes in particular are set to benefit. For people on high incomes, however, the tax burden will be higher. Unmarried couples with children who are on low or medium incomes already pay no direct federal tax as it is – and the reform will not change that.
Not only will the Confederation switch to individual taxation, but so will the cantons, adjusting their tax laws accordingly. For most taxpayers, cantonal and municipal taxes account for the largest share of the tax burden – especially for low and medium incomes. The impact of individual taxation on this level depends on how the individual cantons implement the reform.
As a general rule, we can assume that married couples with an equal income distribution are more likely to benefit than couples with a significantly unequal income distribution – similar to the situation with direct federal tax.
