The Swiss securities register: where your 31 December tax value comes from (2025)

The tax value of a listed share at 31 December is not the figure on your custody statement. It comes from the price list the Federal Tax Administration publishes, and as a rule it is the closing price of the last trading day in December. Where December has no price, the most recent available one applies.

Those prices count as the tax value at 31 December. The legal basis is Article 14 and Article 17(1) of the Tax Harmonisation Act: wealth is valued at market value, and what counts is the position at the end of the tax period. That is federal law, so the same principle governs Aargau, Zurich, Lucerne, Solothurn, Bern, Zug and Schwyz.

Your bank statement shows a market value. The Wertschriften- und Guthabenverzeichnis, the securities and assets register attached to the Swiss tax return, wants a tax value. Where the two drift apart, there is a traceable reason.

Why the last trading day in December

The tax period is the calendar year, and taxable wealth is measured by its position at the end of the tax period, or at the end of tax liability. As a rule that is 31 December. What gets taxed is net wealth, the holdings after debts come off. A portfolio adds its 31 December tax value; a mortgage subtracts its balance on the same date.

A share price moves every second, which is useless for a tax return: two people holding identical portfolios can't declare different amounts just because they looked at different times of day. So the federal government photographs the market once, for everybody at once. The ESTV takes the closing prices of the last December trading day from SIX Financial Information and publishes them. From then on the value stops being a moving price and becomes a number the taxpayer and the tax office look up in the same place.

The list isn't frozen once published. The ESTV keeps maintaining it, and updates appear during the year, sometimes covering several tax years at once. If you're reusing a figure from an earlier return, look it up again.

What goes into the register, and at what value

The register collects more than shares. Securities and credit balances in Switzerland and abroad belong in it, along with savings accounts, salary accounts, loans and crypto assets, plus whatever they earned during the tax year.

Row three catches most people out. A stake in a company that isn't traded on an exchange has no price, so there is nothing to look up. The tax administration of the canton where the company is domiciled sets the value, under a procedure agreed across the cantons and built on the company's own annual accounts. The number arrives at the taxpayer rather than coming from them.

Row four saves work. Occupational pension and pillar 3a balances are tax-free until the benefits fall due.

Income sits on the same form, and there the gross amount counts. Switzerland levies 35 % withholding tax at source on Swiss capital income, so only 65 % reaches the account as the net credit. A dividend of CHF 1'000 shows up as CHF 650 in the account and CHF 1'000 in the register. The missing CHF 350 is tax already paid, and this declaration is how it gets reclaimed. Interest on a bank deposit is exempt from that tax where the calendar-year total does not exceed CHF 200; above that line the whole amount is caught. Either way it still belongs in the register.

The two halves measure different things. Wealth counts only the position at 31 December, income counts everything that accrued across the year. A holding sold in November still appears with its dividend, but no longer with its value.

One dollar account, two exchange rates

Foreign currency is where the bank's number and the tax return's number pull apart most visibly. Foreign assets and income are converted into francs using two different rates from the same list: the year-end rate for assets, the annual average rate for income.

An account holding USD 20'000 at 31.12.2025 that paid USD 600 in dividends during 2025:

Run the income through the year-end rate instead and it comes to CHF 475.35, so CHF 23.04 less. The gap is small, and it isn't a rounding artefact. These are two rates answering two questions: the year-end rate describes a single date, the annual average describes a whole year in which money arrived at shifting rates.

Rates and price lists belong to the 2025 tax period and are republished every year. For a different tax year, check the current list.

So why doesn't your bank's figure match?

The most common cause is the reference date. The list takes the closing price of the last December trading day, or the most recent available one where that is missing. A statement drawn on any other day shows a different number.

Currency is the second. A statement that converts at its own rate diverges from the ESTV rate the declaration uses.

Then there are the unlisted holdings. No price exists for a bank to look up; the tax authority sets the market value, and waits for the company's own assessment to do it.

There is a shortcut around all three: the Steuerauszug, the tax statement many Swiss banks produce on request, in some cases for a fee. It pulls together the taxable assets and the full year's income at that bank, so instead of entering every position you carry the totals into one line of the register and attach the complete statement. Its electronic form is called the eSteuerauszug, and the cantons' own declaration software can generally read it in directly.

What to do in January

The price list for a tax year usually appears in the January that follows, with the 31 December exchange rates and the annual averages. From then the register can be completed in full.

• Ask every bank holding a portfolio or an account for the tax statement. It replaces retyping individual positions.
• Check the foreign-currency positions: assets at the year-end rate, income at the annual average.
• Declare gross income, not the net credit on the account.
• Don't estimate a value for an unlisted stake; take the one the responsible tax administration sets.

Whether a particular position belongs in your register, and at what value, depends on your circumstances and is worth checking case by case.

TaxWize reads the tax documents you upload and works the return through the tariff and the multipliers of your municipality; every value can be checked and corrected. What a different taxable income means where you live runs through the tax comparison, and why pillar 3a balances stay out of the register while still mattering for tax sits in Pillar 3a and saving tax.

Sources

• Federal Act on the Harmonisation of Direct Taxation (StHG, SR 642.14), version of 01.01.2025: Art. 13(1) (wealth tax applies to total net wealth), Art. 14(1) (valuation at market value), Art. 15(1) (the tax period is the calendar year), Art. 17(1) (taxable wealth is measured by the position at the end of the tax period or of tax liability): fedlex.admin.ch, retrieved 07.09.2026
• Federal Withholding Tax Act (VStG, SR 642.21), version of 01.01.2025: Art. 5(1)(c) (interest on customer deposits is exempt where the interest for a calendar year does not exceed CHF 200), Art. 10(1) (the debtor of the taxable payment is liable for the tax), Art. 13(1)(a) (35 % on capital income), Art. 14(1) (the taxable payment must be reduced by the tax amount when credited): fedlex.admin.ch, retrieved 07.09.2026
• Federal Tax Administration, "Kurslisten (ICTax)": "Die in dieser Liste enthaltenen Kurse sind in der Regel die Schlusskurse des letzten Börsentages des Monats Dezember (Quelle: SIX Financial Information). Bei fehlenden Kursen wird auf die letztverfügbaren Kurse zurückgegriffen. Diese Kurse gelten als Steuerwert am 31. Dezember (Art. 14 und 17 Abs. 1 StHG).": estv.admin.ch, retrieved 07.09.2026
• Federal Tax Administration, notice "Kurslisten (ICTax)", Bern, 07.09.2026: the price lists and the bonus-share lists for 2024, 2025 and 2026 were updated: sepos.admin.ch, retrieved 07.09.2026
• Federal Department of Finance / ESTV, "Devisen – Banknoten 31.12.2025", column "Freie Devise": EUR 0.930500, USD 0.792250, republished by the Canton of Aargau for the 2025 tax return: ag.ch, retrieved 07.09.2026
• Federal Department of Finance / ESTV, "Jahresmittelkurs 2025" (Bern, January 2026): EUR 0.9370347, USD 0.83065179, republished by the Canton of Aargau for the 2025 tax return: ag.ch, retrieved 07.09.2026
• Canton of Zug, "Wertschriften, Konten und Devisen": tax value at the closing price of the last December trading day, balance at 31 December for accounts, loans and crypto assets; year-end rates for assets and annual average rates for income; the bank's tax statement; pension assets left out of the register; unlisted holdings valued by the tax authorities of the company's home canton under Circular 28 of the Swiss Tax Conference: zg.ch, retrieved 07.09.2026
• Canton of Zurich, "Verrechnungssteuer & ausländische Quellensteuer": the value at 31 December is declared in the securities and assets register; the 31 December exchange rate applies to assets and the annual average rate to income; 35 % withholding tax, refunded via declaration of gross income, subject to residence and beneficial ownership, lapsing after three years; the eSteuerauszug: zh.ch, retrieved 07.09.2026
• Canton of Bern, TaxInfo, "Bewertung von Wertpapieren für die Vermögenssteuer" (version of 23.11.2021): the closing price of the last December trading day is the market value, published in the ESTV price lists; unlisted securities are valued by the cantonal tax administration under Circular 28, on the basis of the annual accounts: taxinfo.sv.fin.be.ch, retrieved 07.09.2026
• Canton of Aargau, guidance 30.1.1 "Wertschriften" (published 27.02.2026): for unlisted shares the last known tax value may be entered, the tax authority applies the current tax value to the assessment and waits for the company's final assessment to set it; reference to the ESTV price list: ag.ch, retrieved 07.09.2026