How Swiss lump-sum tax is calculated: 7× rent rule

The Swiss lump-sum tax is calculated on your worldwide annual living costs, but never on less than the highest of four floors: CHF 435,000 for federal tax in 2026, seven times your annual rent or rental value, three times the cost of board and lodging, and a control calculation on certain Swiss-source income. Ordinary tax rates are then applied to that base.

Key facts (as of September 2026)

Step 1: your worldwide living costs

The base starts with what you and the people you support spend in a year, in Switzerland and abroad. The ESTV's Circular 44 gives a broad list: housing, household staff, schooling (including abroad), travel, cars, boats, aircraft and horses, and also the taxes and social-security contributions you pay. Nothing is deducted.

This is the figure the tax authority expects you to document. Geneva asks for a lifestyle form when you apply; Uri asks for a living-cost budget and, every year afterwards, evidence of worldwide living costs in a special return.

If your real spending is higher than every floor below, your spending is the base.

Step 2: the floors

The base can never be lower than the highest of these amounts.

The federal minimum: CHF 435,000

For direct federal tax, the minimum base is CHF 435,000 for tax year 2026. It is indexed to inflation; it was CHF 434,700 in 2025. Cantons set their own minimum for cantonal and communal tax, from CHF 200,000 in Jura to CHF 647,100 in Lucerne; see our lump-sum taxation by canton table.

The 7× rent rule

If you run your own household, the base must be at least seven times the annual rent you pay. If you own the home, the rental value is used instead. If you have several homes in Switzerland, the highest rent or rental value counts.

Two cantons adjust this at the cantonal level. Vaud applies seven times the rent plus 10%. Thurgau uses ten times the rent.

For home owners, one change is on the horizon: the imputed rental value on owner-occupied homes is due to be abolished from 1 January 2029. How the rent test will then work for owners has not been settled, so it is worth watching if you plan to buy.

The board-and-lodging test

If you live in a hotel, a pension or similar accommodation, the base must be at least three times the annual price of board and lodging. Thurgau uses four times.

The control calculation

This is the least intuitive part. Unlike the other floors, the control calculation does not look at your lifestyle but at certain income items: under art. 14 para. 3 lit. d DBG, the base must be at least their gross total, so in effect your lump-sum tax is at least as high as the ordinary tax would be on the gross amount of:

• Swiss real estate and its income;
• movable property located in Switzerland and its income;
• capital invested in Switzerland, including loans secured by Swiss mortgages, and its income;
• copyrights, patents and similar rights used in Switzerland;
• Swiss-source pensions;
• foreign income for which you claim relief under a double tax treaty.

"Swiss source" is defined by the debtor, not the bank. Interest on a bond counts if the debtor is domiciled in Switzerland; a dividend counts if the company has its seat in Switzerland. Where the securities are held and in which currency does not matter. Only property maintenance costs and ordinary asset-management costs may be deducted.

At cantonal level, the control calculation also includes the gross wealth in those Swiss items: Swiss real estate, Swiss movables and capital invested in Switzerland.

The practical point is simple: the more of your income and assets sit in Switzerland, or benefit from treaty relief, the more likely the control calculation becomes the binding floor. Treaty relief has its own twist for certain countries, explained in modified lump sum and tax treaties.

Step 3: apply the rates and gross up

The ordinary federal tax tariff is applied to the base, without the social deductions ordinary taxpayers get. The canton does the same with its own tariff and communal multiplier.

Because your taxes are themselves part of your living costs, cantons work out the base and the tax together, adjusting until the two match. This is often called grossing up or iteration. Geneva publishes two worked examples of its method, one for EU/EFTA nationals and one for third-country nationals. They use 2021 tariffs, so treat the numbers as an illustration of the method rather than current amounts.

Wealth is then covered according to the canton's rule: a surcharge on the base in Geneva and Vaud, a deemed wealth equal to a multiple of the base in most other cantons, or local real estate only in Bern.

Simplified illustrations

The examples below are simplified illustrations with round numbers. They show only how the floors compare; they do not calculate any tax, because tax depends on the canton, the commune and your full file. They use the published 2026 federal minimum and the published cantonal rules.

Illustration 1: a modest rent, the minimum applies

A couple rents a home for CHF 50,000 a year and documents living costs of CHF 300,000.

• 7× rent: 7 × 50,000 = CHF 350,000
• Living costs: CHF 300,000
• Federal minimum 2026: CHF 435,000

For federal tax, the highest figure is the CHF 435,000 minimum, so that is the base. For cantonal tax, the result depends on the canton's own minimum.

Illustration 2: a larger home, the rent test applies

A family rents a lakeside house for CHF 90,000 a year and documents living costs of CHF 500,000.

• 7× rent: 7 × 90,000 = CHF 630,000
• Living costs: CHF 500,000
• Federal minimum 2026: CHF 435,000

The rent test gives the highest figure, so the base is at least CHF 630,000. In Vaud the cantonal rent test would be 630,000 plus 10%, which is CHF 693,000.

Illustration 3: high spending, living costs apply

A family rents a home for CHF 80,000 a year but spends CHF 1,000,000 a year worldwide, including staff, schooling and travel.

• 7× rent: 7 × 80,000 = CHF 560,000
• Federal minimum 2026: CHF 435,000
• Living costs: CHF 1,000,000

Actual spending is the highest figure, so the base is at least CHF 1,000,000, before any gross-up for the taxes themselves.

Illustration 4: Swiss investments bring in the control calculation

A single person rents for CHF 50,000 a year, so the base under the other tests is the CHF 435,000 federal minimum. They also hold a large portfolio of Swiss shares and receive a Swiss pension.

The tax authority then compares two amounts: the tax on the lump-sum base, and the ordinary tax on the gross Swiss dividends and the Swiss pension. Whichever is higher is owed. If the Swiss-source income is large enough, the control calculation, not the lump sum, sets the bill. This is why the make-up of your portfolio is part of any lump-sum review.

Illustration 5: how deemed wealth scales

Using only the published multiples: in Zug, a cantonal base of CHF 500,000 implies deemed wealth of at least CHF 10 million (20×). In Valais, a base of CHF 250,000 implies at least CHF 1 million (4×). In Nidwalden the deemed wealth is at least 20× the base and never below CHF 8 million.

Why no reliable online calculator exists

The inputs that matter most are specific to you: your documented spending, your home, where your income arises, whether you claim treaty relief, and your canton and commune. Cantonal practice on each of these varies, and the canton decides. That is why the dependable way to know the number is a written agreement with the canton before you move, described in our guide to the tax ruling before moving.

How we help

We build the calculation from your real figures, test it against the rent rule and the control calculation in the cantons you are considering, and then present it to the canton as part of the ruling request. To see whether the route suits you before we get to numbers, use the eligibility check; for background, see our overview of Swiss lump-sum taxation.

This guide is general information as of 30 September 2026; your own situation needs a ruling or personal advice before you rely on it.