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Moving canton during the year: the canton you live in on 31 December taxes the whole year (2026)

Move to another Swiss canton and the canton you live in on 31 December taxes your whole year. What happens to tax already paid, pension withdrawals and a property you keep.

Updated on 20.10.2026 · 7 min read

If you move to another canton within Switzerland, the canton you live in on 31 December taxes your whole year. There's no split by months. Move from Winterthur to Baden in October 2026, and all of tax year 2026 becomes an Aargau year: your salary from 1 January on, your assets at year end, and the tax multiplier (Steuerfuss) of your new municipality. That goes for cantonal and municipal tax and for the direct federal tax too.

Your old canton won't send you a return for the year you leave, and provisional tax you've already paid it for that year comes back as a rule. Only two things run on their own rules: a lump-sum withdrawal from your pension savings, and a property you keep in the old canton.

One snapshot on New Year's Eve

For the question of where you live, the tax year looks at a single moment. Nine months at the old address, boxes stacked in the stairwell, a new door key in October: none of it registers. The tax office takes the picture on 31 December and works backwards from there to 1 January.

Federal law sets this up the same way for every canton. Under the Tax Harmonisation Act, if you change residence within Switzerland, you're liable for the current tax period in the canton where you live at the end of that period. The direct federal tax is levied by the canton you live in at the end of the tax period as well.

Bern puts it plainly in its leaflet on changing residence: you declare the income you earned over the whole year and the assets you held on 31 December.

So a move around New Year decides an entire tax year. Move on 30.12.2026 and 2026 belongs to your new canton. Move on 04.01.2027 and 2026 still belongs entirely to the old one; the switch only happens for 2027.

Where a move in October 2026 sends each item

A married couple live in Winterthur until 30.09.2026 and in Baden from 01.10.2026. Both work the whole year, and together they earn CHF 118'000 net in 2026. In spring they paid Winterthur's provisional bill for 2026 cantonal and municipal tax, CHF 9'400. On 16.03.2026, while still in Winterthur, she took CHF 30'000 out of her pillar 3a.

ItemAmountWhere it's taxed
Net salary 01.01.–31.12.2026CHF 118'000Aargau, municipality of Baden, whole year
Assetsas of 31.12.2026Aargau
Direct federal tax 2026on the full year's incomelevied by Aargau
Pillar 3a withdrawal of 16.03.2026CHF 30'000Zurich, taxed separately from salary
Provisional payment to WinterthurCHF 9'400comes back as a rule

The 2026 return comes from Baden, not from Winterthur. The nine Zurich months of salary sit in it next to the three Aargau months, as one annual salary, and the whole lot is taxed at Aargau's tariff and Baden's Steuerfuss. In Aargau, the municipality you live in at the end of the tax period sends the return, makes the assessment and collects the tax for the whole year.

Only the pillar 3a withdrawal stays in Zurich, because it fell due in March, while the couple still lived there.

What happens to the money your old canton already has?

If your old canton has already been paid for the year you leave, that money comes back to you as a rule. The Zurich finance directorate's directive on tax collection says tax already paid for that period is, as a rule, to be refunded. It also names the exception: the refund can be reduced or withheld if an assessment from an earlier year isn't final yet or tax is still outstanding.

Aargau and Bern do the same, refunding provisional tax or instalments already paid. For Lucerne, Solothurn, Zug and Schwyz the rule wasn't read for this article.

Your new canton issues its own provisional bill, and it covers the whole year. A Zurich municipality such as Dänikon asks people arriving from another canton for their income and assets on a form for that bill. How the provisional bill and the final bill fit together is covered in provisional bill, assessment and final bill.

Withholding tax follows you too. If you leave Zurich, the same directive makes your new canton responsible for refunding withholding tax on interest and dividends that fell due in the year of the move.

Pension capital and property: the two exceptions

A lump-sum withdrawal from your pension fund or pillar 3a ignores 31 December. It's taxed in the canton where you live on the day it falls due. The Tax Harmonisation Act says so for cantonal and municipal tax, and the Federal Act on Direct Federal Tax says so for the federal side. Take the money before you move and your old canton taxes it; take it afterwards and the new one does. If a withdrawal is coming up anyway, the due date and the moving date belong on the same calendar (whether that changes anything for you depends on the two cantons' tariffs).

Keep a flat or a house in your old canton, and you stay liable there for that property, for the whole tax period. The law calls this economic affiliation (wirtschaftliche Zugehörigkeit); Aargau's leaflet speaks of a special tax domicile (Spezialsteuerdomizil). Your income and assets are then divided between the cantons, which is the Steuerausscheidung. For Aargau, the leaflet also spells out the routine: you file your return where you live and send a copy to the property canton yourself. How the division is calculated isn't covered here.

Moving within the same canton

The same logic works one level down. Move to another municipality within Aargau or Bern and you pay municipal tax for the whole year to the municipality you live in on 31 December. In Zurich the current tax period likewise belongs to the municipality you move to.

In Bern this can show up in the instalments: if your old and new municipalities have different tax rates (Bern calls it the Steueranlage), differences can arise in the instalment calculation, and the final statement corrects them retroactively.

Arriving from abroad is a different case

If you move to Switzerland from abroad, or leave Switzerland for abroad, you're only liable for part of the year (unterjährige Steuerpflicht). That case has its own rules, and this article doesn't cover it.

The municipality on 31 December

When you change canton, your return hangs on one detail: the municipality you live in on 31 December. If that municipality was in Aargau, Zurich, Lucerne, Solothurn, Bern, Zug or Schwyz on 31.12.2025, TaxWize prepares your 2025 return for a plain move between two cantons, using that municipality and your income for the whole year. A property you kept in the old canton and a pension-capital withdrawal paid out before the move are outside what TaxWize prepares. For a first sense of how far two municipalities' rates sit apart, the tax comparison shows it for tax year 2025.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Do I file two tax returns after moving to another canton?
No. For the year of the move you file one return, with the canton you live in on 31 December, covering the whole year's income and your assets on 31 December. Your old canton doesn't send you a return for that year. If you keep property there, Aargau's leaflet has you send that canton a copy of your return yourself.
Do I get back the provisional tax I paid my old canton?
As a rule, yes. In Zurich, Aargau and Bern, tax already paid for the year of the move is refunded as a rule. Zurich's collection directive names the exception: the refund can be reduced or withheld if an assessment from an earlier year isn't final yet or tax is still outstanding. For Lucerne, Solothurn, Zug and Schwyz the rule wasn't read for this article.
Which canton taxes a pillar 3a withdrawal in the year I move?
The canton you live in when the payment falls due. Pension capital doesn't follow the 31 December rule; it follows the due date. That holds for cantonal and municipal tax and for the direct federal tax alike. A withdrawal before the move goes to your old canton, one after the move to your new canton.
Does the same rule apply if I move to Switzerland from abroad?
No. If you arrive from abroad or leave Switzerland, you're only liable to tax for part of the year (unterjährige Steuerpflicht). That case has its own rules, for example how income is converted to a full year to set the tax rate. This article only covers moves between two Swiss cantons.

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