The Swiss Federal Council has launched a consultation on a constitutional amendment to implement the OECD Corporate Minimum Tax. The proposal contains a general provision on the amendment of the Swiss Federal Constitution and a temporary arrangement that will ensure that the minimum tax rate comes into force on 1 January 2024. Said temporary arrangement will be replaced by a bill released by the parliament. The core provisions to ensure the minimum tax rate of 15% for multinational companies with a turnover of more than EUR 750 million contain:
- a new article 129a of the Swiss Constitution that empowers the Confederation to release particular regulations on the taxation of multinational companies, including deviations from:
- the principles of universality and uniformity of taxation and taxation based on the economic performance;
- the maximum tax rates defined in article 128(1) of the Swiss Constitution;
- the general execution rules and the share of the cantons in the collection of federal direct taxes; and
- the obligation to harmonize tax laws on cantonal and federal level; and
- a transitory provision for article 129a, which contains principles of a supplementary tax for multinational companies, including:
- a definition of a multinational company;
- a definition of the minimum tax;
- the method of calculating of profits subject to minimum tax;
- the method of calculating the supplementary tax; and
- the competent canton to assess the supplementary tax.
The Federal Council launched the consultation on 11 March 2022. The cantons and interested parties are invited to submit their feedback on the proposal by 20 April 2022. The change of the Constitution requires a people's referendum, and such referendum will take place in June 2023 at the latest.