29/06/20

SWITZERLAND: Jurisdiction Rules Out Tax Changes For Blockchain Technology.

As published on tax-news.com, Thursday 25 June, 2020.

The Swiss Finance Department has said that changes to tax law are not currently needed in response to developments in distributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchain.

The Federal Department of Finance produced a report on the impact of developments in DLT and blockchain on Swiss tax law at the request of the Federal Council. The report concluded that no special legislative amendments to tax law are necessary.

The report found that, as regards income, profit, wealth, and capital gains taxes, the existing legislation has proved its worth. Existing VAT law also covers arrangements underpinned by DLT and blockchain technology.

The report also examined the collection of withholding taxes on income from equity and participation tokens. It recommended that the coverage of the withholding tax regime should not be expanded, as this would have adverse effects for Switzerland as a business location. It advised against legislative changes to transfer stamp tax at present, citing uncertainty about the type and scope of the future use of DLT trading facilities.

The Federal Council took note of the report at a meeting on June 19, 2020