Switzerland and the BEPS Project
Switzerland is a member of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting). Switzerland has committed to the BEPS Minimum Standards (Actions 5, 6, 13, 14) and implemented them via domestic legislation. The principal Swiss BEPS legislation for reporting is the Federal Act on International Automatic Exchange of Country-by-Country Reports (ALBAG, Bundesgesetz über den automatischen Informationsaustausch zu länderbezogenen Berichten) in force since 2017.
BEPS Action 13: Three-Tier Documentation
Action 13 requires large multinationals to prepare:
- Country-by-Country Report (CbCR): High-level data for each jurisdiction — revenue, profit, tax paid, number of employees, assets, for each group entity
- Master File: Group-level overview of business, organisational structure, intangibles, intercompany financing, and financial/tax positions
- Local File: Entity-level detail on material intercompany transactions with related parties
Swiss ALBAG Threshold
The Swiss CbCR obligation applies to Swiss-headquartered multinational groups with consolidated annual revenue exceeding CHF 900 million in the preceding fiscal year. For groups below this threshold, Swiss law does not mandate CbCR — but foreign parent jurisdictions may still require a CbCR filed abroad, with automatic exchange to Switzerland.
Filing Deadlines
- Swiss ultimate parent entity must submit the CbCR to ESTV within 12 months after the end of the reporting fiscal year
- Notification to ESTV identifying the reporting entity must be made within the same fiscal year being reported
- ESTV exchanges received CbCRs with relevant jurisdictions via the OECD multilateral competent authority agreement (MCAA)
Secondary Filing (Local Filing)
If the UPE is in a jurisdiction that does not have an exchange agreement with Switzerland for CbCR, the Swiss constituent entity must file a local CbCR with ESTV as substitute (secondary filing). This is relevant for Swiss subsidiaries of US groups, as the US-Switzerland CbCR exchange agreement may require verification of effective exchange in practice.
Use of CbCRs by Swiss Tax Authorities
ESTV uses CbCRs for risk assessment purposes — to identify groups with significant revenue attribution to low-tax jurisdictions relative to employees and assets there. CbCRs are not publicly available in Switzerland (unlike country-level public CbCR proposals at the EU level).
Source basis: ALBAG in force 2017 · OECD BEPS Action 13 Final Report 2015 · ESTV ALBAG Implementation Guidance · OECD CbCR Peer Review Switzerland 2022.