Taxation: why the cantons are strengthening their teams

The reform of individual taxation is not yet visible in payroll software or in annual closures. But it is already starting to have a very concrete effect: cantonal tax administrations are preparing to hire additional staff to absorb the change.

For SMEs, the self-employed and fiduciaries, this movement is not just a human resources issue in the public sector. It heralds a significant tax transition, with more separate files, distinct taxpayer accounts, IT systems to adapt and, probably, more practical questions at the counter as well as with private agents.

Tax administrations strengthening before the deadline

The Swiss people accepted the federal law on individual taxation on 8 March 2026 with 54.23% of the votes, according to the Federal Tax Administration. The reform aims to end the model in which married couples are taxed jointly, moving to separate taxation of each taxpayer, regardless of marital status. Its entry into force is scheduled by 2032 at the latest.

This deadline may seem comfortable from a company's perspective. It is much less so for a cantonal tax administration. Changing a tax system is not just about changing a form. Data flows need to be reviewed, digital portals adapted, controls rethought, tax assessors trained, collection adjusted and special cases anticipated. The cantons must also prepare their budgets before the switch becomes effective.

According to information reported by Econostrum based on RTS, several cantons have already quantified their needs. Fribourg estimates it will need to recruit and train between 45 and 50 new employees. Neuchâtel mentions between 10 and 15 additional positions. St. Gallen plans 73 new jobs. Geneva talks about several dozen positions, while Valais was yet to present its estimates.

The reinforcements would not only concern taxation. The teams responsible for tax collection and IT should also be called upon. It makes sense: if each person has their own tax file, administrations will have to manage more accounts, more exchanges and more individualised data. The vice-president of the Swiss Tax Conference, Youssef Wahid, notes in particular that married couples currently generally have a joint tax account, whereas the new system involves separate accounts.

For family SMEs, couple taxation becomes less automatic

Individual taxation is often presented as a reform aimed at eliminating the fiscal penalty of marriage. For an SME, the issue lies elsewhere: it changes the way some managers, spouses active in the business or self-employed will have to read their personal tax situation.

In a family business, income is not always distributed simply. One spouse may be an employee of the company, the other an administrator, associate, self-employed or economic owner. Some income comes from work, others from entrepreneurial assets. With separate taxation, the allocation between individuals will become more important, as each taxpayer will be assessed individually. This does not mean that salaries need to be artificially modified. But it requires better documentation of what corresponds to actual activity, a managerial function, a return on capital or an asset situation.

RelevePME highlights that entrepreneurial couples deriving income from the same SME will need to rethink the distribution of their remuneration, particularly from a tax planning perspective. The same reasoning applies during a business transfer: when a manager prepares the sale, donation or family takeover of their company, the new tax parameters will need to be integrated early enough into asset planning.

Caution remains essential. A fiduciary cannot reason solely on the basis of a general principle. The result will depend on the household composition, the nature of the income, the canton, deductions, pension, private debt and the legal structure of the activity. Benjamin Chapuis, a tax expert at the Haute école de gestion Arc, also reminded that the personal scope of individual taxation is delicate to measure and requires an analysis of each situation.

Cantonal scales: the parameter still open for budgets

The reform is federal, but its deployment will not be uniform in all its effects. The Federal Department of Finance specifies that the financial consequences for the cantons will depend on their own transposition, particularly the tax scales. The cantons have tariff autonomy: the Confederation cannot impose how they set their cantonal scales.

For an SME, this autonomy means that it will have to follow the timetable and choices of its canton, and not just federal announcements. A company active in several cantons, or whose managers reside in a different canton from the headquarters, will need to be particularly attentive. The effects on instalments, the private cash flow of managers, salary decisions and dividend planning can only be seriously evaluated with the applicable cantonal rules.

Based on the 2026 tax year, the Federal Department of Finance estimates the revenue loss related to the reform at around 630 million francs for direct federal tax. The Confederation would bear 500 million francs and the cantons 130 million. These amounts provide a macro-financial order of magnitude, but they do not yet indicate how each canton will adapt its tax mechanism or how each taxpayer will be affected.

The public financial context adds a layer of complexity. The Federal Department of Finance indicates that compensatory payments to the cantons will increase in 2026 by 227 million francs compared to the previous year, reaching 6.4 billion francs, with about two-thirds borne by the Confederation. These equalisation flows do not automatically translate into tax decisions for businesses. However, they remind that cantons arbitrate between revenue, administrative costs and budget balance.

Another element not to be confused with the reform, but to be integrated into tax monitoring: the Federal Department of Finance has adjusted the scales and deductions of direct federal tax for the 2026 tax year to compensate for cold progression, with a 0.1% modification based on the evolution of the Swiss consumer price index. For employers, this type of adjustment illustrates the importance of regularly updating the tax parameters used in remuneration simulations and advice to employees.

The administrative wave will also affect fiduciaries

When cantons strengthen their staff, it is often a sign that the burden will not remain confined to the administration. Fiduciaries, HR services and internal accountants will also have to absorb part of the work of explanation and preparation. Clients will ask if the new system is favourable to them, if a salary needs to be changed, a pension reviewed, the instalment rhythm altered or a family organisation adapted.

The main risk for an SME is not only fiscal. It is operational. A poorly prepared file, incomplete supporting documents or unclear personal data can waste time at the time of declaration. In companies where several members of the same family work together, it becomes even more important to correctly distinguish roles, contracts, remunerations and private financial flows.

Employers concerned by withholding tax will also need to follow cantonal instructions when they are specified. Without anticipating future rules, it is reasonable to expect that software, forms and control processes will need to be adapted at the time of implementation. Payroll managers therefore have an interest in maintaining clean documentation on marital status, changes in situation and elements necessary for statements, while avoiding drawing conclusions before the publication of applicable guidelines.

The transition will also be digital. Cantons will need to adapt their tools to process individual declarations on a large scale. On the fiduciary side, this probably means increased attention to powers of attorney, access to tax portals, electronic archiving and the separation of spouses' files. A firm that follows many self-employed or married managers will benefit from inventorying sensitive cases before cantonal deadlines become tight.

Good habits to establish before the switch

The reform does not call for a hasty reaction. It calls for structured preparation. The final parameters, particularly cantonal, are not yet all known. However, some habits can be put in place without delay and without making an irreversible tax decision.

• Identify clients or managers for whom the couple's income is linked to the same company.
• Clearly document the functions performed by each spouse in the SME, especially when there are cross-remunerations or family responsibilities in the company.
• Integrate individual taxation into discussions of transfer, pension and asset planning, with updated simulations when cantonal scales are known.
• Plan training time for accounting, payroll and tax teams, to avoid late discovery of new procedures.
• Follow communications from the canton of residence of the managers and the canton of the company's headquarters, as practical implications may differ.

The recruitment announced in the cantons is therefore a useful signal for the private sector. It shows that the reform of individual taxation will not be limited to a change in tax philosophy: it will modify the administrative chain, from the taxpayer to the tax assessor, via the fiduciary. For Swiss SMEs, the right reflex is to treat this deadline as a management project: monitor the rules, clean the data, document particular situations and request a personalised analysis before any decision affecting salaries, income structure or transfer.