In brief
On 7 April 2026, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (SFTA) issued two Official Statements, Communication-030 titled “Top-up Tax: Application of the Administrative Guidance on Article 9.1 of the Global Anti-Base Erosion Model Rules Adopted on 13 January 2025” as well as Communication-031 titled “Top-up tax: temporal application and exercise of elections of the administrative guidance of 5 January 2026 on the Side-by-Side Package”.
The following addresses essentially the content and unresolved points of Communication-030.
In more detail
Communication-030 is of importance to Swiss-based constituent entities of large multinational enterprise (MNE) groups that have benefitted from targeted government arrangements and retroactive elections introduced after 30 November 2021 (the “cut-off date” established by the Global Anti‑Base Erosion (GloBE) Model Rules).
Communication-030 addresses the tension between, on the one hand, the OECD’s January 2025 Administrative Guidance (“January 2025 AG”), which contains integrity measures targeting certain tax attributes and arrangements granted after 30 November 2021, and, on the other, a Swiss parliamentary instruction to the Federal Council to limit application of the January 2025 AG prospectively from 1 January 2025.
It establishes an interim filing regime pending an amendment to the Swiss Ordinance on the Global Minimum Tax (OMinT) according to which Swiss constituent entities must file their Top-up Tax returns applying the January 2025 AG. The cantonal tax authorities will not issue final assessments until the Federal Council has acted.
Impacted Swiss constituent entities must, however, monitor a series of unresolved issues. It remains to be clarified how the Federal Council will amend the OMinT — whether it adopts a narrow approach limited to fiscal year 2024 or a broader one covering all Deferred Tax Asset (DTA) benefits granted since 1 December 2021 and their reversal in fiscal years 2025 onwards — and how that approach will affect Switzerland’s transitional Qualified Domestic Minimum Top‑Up Tax (DMTT) status under the Inclusive Framework’s (IF) forthcoming full legislative peer review process. The scope of the amendment of the OMinT should also determine whether, and when, the Switch-Off Rule introduced by the January 2025 AG is triggered at Swiss constituent entity level, with direct consequences for the articulation of the Swiss QDMTT with non-Swiss Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) or UTPR regimes.
Communication-031 addresses temporal application and exercise of elections provided by the Side-by-Side (SBS) Package adopted by the IF on 5 January 2026. In connection with the January 2025 AG, the SBS Package introduces additional variables – including a Side-by-Side Safe Harbour applicable from 1 January 2026 in Switzerland, which, while it deems IIR and Undertaxed Payments Rule (UTPR) Top-up Tax to be zero for US-parented groups from 2026, leaves the Swiss QDMTT computation and the Switch-Off Rule mechanics wholly unaffected.