Capital gains on property are taxed by the canton, not by Bern. Depending on where the home sits, a rushed seller can hand 30 to 60 percent of the gain to the taxman.
By the Envergure editorial team
Selling too soon can hand half your profit to the taxman. Capital gains on property are taxed by the canton, not by Bern, and two homes twenty kilometres apart can face bills that differ by tens of thousands of francs.
A seller pushed by an inheritance, a job move or a divorce often learns late that how long you have owned the place matters as much as the price. Here is how the same gain is taxed from one shore of Lake Geneva to the other, and why waiting a few weeks sometimes pays off.
FEDERALThe federal law on the harmonisation of direct taxes requires every canton to levy a tax on real estate gains. That is where Bern stops. The scale, the rate and the holding periods are left to each canton, so the same sale can cost wildly different amounts depending on where the property sits. Simple in principle, far less so on the invoice.
CANTON OF GENEVAIn Geneva, the official scale falls steadily with time. The longer the property stays in your hands, the smaller the share the canton takes on the gain. The first bracket bites hard, the last one barely registers.
| Holding period | Rate on the gain |
|---|---|
| Under 2 years | 50 % |
| 2 to 4 years | 40 % |
| 4 to 6 years | 30 % |
| 6 to 8 years | 20 % |
| 8 to 10 years | 15 % |
| 10 to 25 years | 10 % |
| Over 25 years | 2 % |
The 2 percent floor beyond twenty five years was cut on 1 January 2025. One more useful detail, a gain below 5,000 francs in a single year is exempt.
CANTON OF VAUDVaud works on a different logic. The rate depends solely on the holding period, never on the size of the gain. It caps at 30 percent for a sale within the first year and slides down to 7 percent after twenty four years. One Vaud quirk deserves attention, the years the seller actually lived in the home count double when the holding period is worked out. Living in your own property shortens the road to the reduced rate.
ELSEWHERE IN SWITZERLANDGeneva is not the toughest canton. Basel-Stadt charges 60 percent over the first three years of ownership, one of the steepest scales in the country. Valais adds a surcharge on short holdings too, up to five years, without publishing a scale as clear as its French speaking neighbours. Zurich also penalises sales made zero to two years after purchase, again with no uniform public grid.
Take a gain of 200,000 francs booked after less than two years. In Geneva the bill reaches 100,000 francs. On a comparable Vaud property it drops to around 60,000 francs. Forty thousand francs of difference for a matter of address, with the seller doing nothing but signing before one notary rather than another.
In mid April 2026 the Federal Council put forward a tightening of the Lex Koller, with prior authorisation for a main residence bought by a national from outside the EU and EFTA, an obligation to resell within two years after a move, and tighter cantonal quotas on second homes. The consultation closed on 15 July 2026 and the plan came out blunted. Several business and cantonal circles call it useless and counterproductive, ineffective against rising prices and risky for large developments. Nothing is voted yet. A deal already under way with a foreign buyer is not affected for now, but any operation planned for 2027 or later is worth watching closely.
The new tenancy rules and customs apply to every lease in the canton until 30 June 2032. Five points touch landlords and tenants directly.