Women who will work longer, cheaper hygiene products, homosexuals who will be able to donate blood, the end of FM for SSR: these new provisions come into force in Switzerland in January. Overview.
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RETIREMENT: From January, the retirement age for women will be gradually raised to reach 65 by 2028. The people half-heartedly adopted the AVS21 project in September 2022.
The Greens and Socialist Women have filed an appeal with the Federal Court to annul this vote. In August, the Federal Social Insurance Office announced calculation errors in AVS projections. The previous “apparently dramatic” outlook, according to both parties, was one of the main reasons for the “yes” vote on raising the retirement age for women from 64 to 65.
On December 12, the Federal Court unanimously rejected the appeals. The judges considered that the certainty of the law precluded its annulment.
ALLOCATIONS: From 2025, AVS and AI pensions will increase by 2.9%. The minimum pension will increase from 1225 to 1260 francs per month, and the maximum pension from 2450 to 2520 francs per month. The child allowance increases from 200 to 215 francs and the training allowance from 250 to 268 francs per month. The increase in family allowances is the first since the law came into force in 2009. The amounts of family allowances are increased by 7.1%. Family allowances aim to partly compensate for the costs borne by parents for the maintenance of their children.
RADIOS: SSR is abandoning FM at the end of the year and will play a pioneering role in the transition to DAB+. In October, the Federal Council decided to grant a final reprieve to FM until the end of 2026 by extending by two years the FM radiocommunication concessions expiring in 2024. The Association of French-speaking regional radios plans a change in November 2026 .
SHOPPING TOURISM: Swiss people shopping abroad will have to pay attention to the bill. From the New Year, purchases of more than 150 francs per day and per person, including children, will be subject to VAT. Until now, the upper limit was 300 francs.
TVA: Menstrual hygiene products, such as tampons or sanitary napkins, will be taxed less. The VAT rate will be lowered from 7.7% to 2.5%. Parliament decided this last year as part of a broader review of the VAT law. If this provision gave rise to a lively debate in the National Council, the UDC and part of the PLR being opposed to it, it did not make a single change in the Council of States.
EQUALITY: Blood donation will be accessible to homosexuals without restriction. Before 2017, they were systematically excluded. Since 2017, men who have sex with men had to observe a period of twelve months of abstinence before being able to donate blood.
For the scientific community, a person who maintains a lasting and exclusive relationship does not represent an increased risk of infectious diseases transmitted by blood, regardless of their sexual orientation. In addition, donating blood will be free. The law will explicitly prohibit granting and receiving any benefits in Switzerland.
FACE COVERING: It will be prohibited to hide one’s face in public, after the popular adoption of the so-called “anti-burqa” initiative by 51.2% in March 2021. Violations of the ban will in most cases be punished by a fine of 100 francs, payable immediately. In the event of refusal to pay the fine, the ordinary procedure will apply and the penalty incurred could then reach up to 1000 francs.
Exceptions are provided. The ban will not apply in particular on planes, diplomatic or consular premises and places of worship. It will also be possible to hide your face for health reasons, to guarantee your safety, to protect yourself from climatic conditions, to maintain local customs, or even for artistic or advertising purposes. The events also benefit from a special status.
MARRIAGE OF MINORS: Marriages of minors concluded abroad, particularly during vacations in the country of origin, may be more easily annulled. The authorities will be able to annul the marriage until the 25th birthday of the person concerned.
Exceptions are provided. If the spouse, a minor at the time of the marriage and an adult at the time of the annulment action, declares of his own free will to maintain the marriage, the judge may grant this request and waive annulling the union.
TOBACCO: Cigar and cigarillo smokers will have to pay more money. The price will be 20 cents more expensive per unit. For fine-cut tobacco intended for making hand-rolled cigarettes, heating tobacco products and snus, you will have to pay 40 cents more per pack.
Additional revenue is estimated at 45 million francs. They will help balance the federal budget for 2025. The price of traditional cigarettes is not affected by this measure.
PROTECTION OF MINORS: Young people will be better protected from violent films and video games or those with sexually explicit content. Cinemas and merchants will be required to indicate the minimum age required to watch a film or play a video game. And they will have to check it.
This obligation will also concern streaming services, such as Netflix, and providers of video or gaming platforms, such as YouTube or Switch. As do event organizers. In the event of an infraction, fines of up to 40,000 francs are provided for.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: Foreign women who suffer domestic violence will be better protected. Currently, many of them may fear losing their residence permit in the event of separation. They can only stay if the marital union has lasted at least three years and they are well integrated. In addition, they must provide proof of violence of a certain intensity and duration.
In the future, family members of a holder of a residence permit (B permit), a holder of a short-term permit (L permit) or a person temporarily admitted ( permit F) will be entitled, in the event of separation, to have their stay regularized, in particular if they are victims of domestic violence. However, they must respect the integration criteria during the three years following the extension of the residence permit.
ENVIRONMENT: The new CO2 law will come into force for the period 2025-2030. A signatory to the Paris Agreement, Switzerland must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by half compared to 1990 by 2030. In addition, it must reach net zero by 2050. To achieve these goals, it will have to reduce approximately two thirds of its greenhouse gas emissions internally.
The law relies on incentives, supplemented by encouragement and targeted investments in the areas of buildings, industry, finance and mobility. Central point: the Federal Council has learned from the failure of the previous version in popular vote in 2021 and renounced new taxes and bans.
He planned funding of 4.1 billion for the five years. This money comes from the CO2 tax already levied on fuels at 120 francs per tonne of CO2. Support for electric vehicle charging stations is not included in the law, a point that divided Parliament until the end.
CLIMATE: The Climate Protection Act, accepted by the people in June 2023, will also be introduced. With its sights set on zero net carbon by 2050, it aims to both reduce environmental damage and strengthen energy security.
The law gives pride of place to financial incentive programs to reduce energy consumption. The building sector and transport must no longer emit CO2 by 2050. Intermediate objectives have been set. The decarbonization of industry and the real estate stock benefits from an incentive of respectively 1.2 billion francs in total for six years and 2 billion francs in total for ten years.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY: The development of the circular economy in Switzerland will be strengthened. Recycling will take precedence over waste incineration. Last spring, Parliament adopted a revised law creating a vast package of measures intended to make the Swiss economy more efficient and reduce its environmental impact, in collaboration with private circles. In particular, it decided to punish with a maximum fine of 300 francs the act of throwing waste on the public highway (littering). However, this aspect will come into force no earlier than mid-2026, with the Federal Council having planned a consultation on this subject for spring 2025.
ENERGY: The development of renewable energies in Switzerland will be strengthened, which should enable greater indigenous production of electricity. The people accepted this plan last June, adopting the law relating to a secure electricity supply by 68.7% of the votes.
The law facilitates the construction of large hydraulic, photovoltaic, wind, pumped storage and biomass installations. Now of national interest, their establishment will take precedence over the protection of nature or the landscape. The reform contains a range of other measures.
A first part comes into force on January 1, such as the primacy of installations, the inclusion in law of a winter reserve or even efficiency measures. Provisions relating to spatial planning will be introduced later, on July 1, 2025. The rest of the new rules are expected to come into force on January 1, 2026.
BUSINESS TAXATION: The second part of the OECD and G20 minimum corporate tax reform will also come into force at the start of the year. This new tax will ensure that profits made by foreign subsidiaries of Swiss groups and by intermediate holding companies of foreign companies will be subject to a tax of at least 15%, to the extent that these groups have a turnover worldwide of 750 million euros or more.
Revenues of 500 million to 1 billion francs are expected, a quarter of which for the Confederation. If Switzerland does not introduce this tax, other states could tax these profits made abroad by means of a second additional international tax. The national supplementary tax has been in force since the beginning of 2024 in Switzerland.
BORDER CROSSERS: At the beginning of 2025, a legal basis will come into force in Switzerland for the taxation of cross-border workers’ income when they work from home. The base will thus be created to allow cross-border workers to be taxed even if they telework abroad. Generally, income is taxed in the country where one works. If cross-border workers move to the home office, their income would therefore be taxed in the country where they reside. The changes are limited to Switzerland’s five neighboring countries. Cross-border workers in France can today work from home up to 40% of their working time, in Italy, the threshold is 25%.
