Switzerland Canton Comparator

Zug, by a wide margin. On the same CHF 120'000 gross salary, a single filer nets about CHF 7'219 more per year in Zug than in Zurich, and Zurich itself nets about CHF 5'485 more than Geneva. Zug combines a low cantonal multiplier (82% of the simple tax) with a low City of Zug communal multiplier (52%), for a combined 134%, versus Zurich's combined 214% and Geneva's steeper base-rate bracket table plus centimes additionnels. Zug's reputation as Switzerland's lowest-tax canton is well earned at the income levels this calculator models.

Zurich and Zug both compute an "einfache Steuer" (simple tax) from a progressive schedule, then multiply that same number by a separate cantonal multiplier and a separate communal multiplier to get the cantonal and communal tax lines. Geneva doesn't work that way: its cantonal bracket table (Art. 41 LIPP) already yields a base tax amount directly, and cantonal and communal layers are each a percentage surcharge ("centimes additionnels") added on top of that same base figure, not a further-multiplied simple tax. Geneva also applies a flat 12% statutory reduction to the cantonal total (base tax plus cantonal centimes) that explicitly excludes the communal centimes, per Art. 1 LDIRPP.

No. Swiss tax follows your legal domicile, generally where you actually live and sleep most nights, not where your employer's office sits. Plenty of people who work in Zurich or Geneva already commute from lower-tax municipalities, but you can't simply elect a canton on paper while living somewhere else. If you're weighing an offer that lets you choose your base, this calculator shows what the tax difference is actually worth, but the underlying move (changing your registered residence) is what makes it real.

No, all four are set nationally and don't vary by canton or municipality. Direkte Bundessteuer (federal tax) uses the same bracket table everywhere in Switzerland. AHV/IV/EO is a flat 5.30% employee share, uncapped. ALV is 1.10% up to the CHF 148,200 insured-earnings ceiling. BVG (occupational pension) uses the same age-banded coordinated-salary formula nationwide. The entire net-pay difference between Zurich, Zug, and Geneva in this calculator comes from the cantonal and communal tax layers alone.

The city specifically, in each case: City of Zurich, City of Zug, and City of Geneva, each canton's largest municipality and the one whose own communal multiplier this calculator uses. Every other municipality within Zurich, Zug, or Geneva canton sets its own communal multiplier, which can differ meaningfully from the city figure (Zug canton alone ranges from 47.5% in Baar to 59% in Neuheim for 2026). Treat this as a same-city comparison, not a canton-wide average.

Zurich's Kirchensteuer (10% of the simple tax, opt-in for registered church members) is well documented and modeled with a toggle. Zug's church-tax mechanics weren't researched deeply enough for this calculator to model confidently, so it's left out for Zug. Geneva doesn't have a compulsory church tax at all; instead it has a voluntary "contribution religieuse volontaire" capped at 1.5% of net taxable income, which isn't withheld from pay the way Kirchensteuer is, so it's out of scope here by design, not an oversight.

It's slightly less certain. Zurich's and Zug's cantonal and communal multipliers came directly from the Swiss Federal Tax Administration's own official Kantonsblatt documents and, for Zug's city rate, the City of Zug's own 2026 budget announcement. Geneva's canton-level figures (base tax schedule, 48.5% cantonal centimes, 12% statutory reduction) are equally official, but the City of Geneva's specific communal centimes rate (45.5% for 2026) comes from two independent secondary sources rather than a primary spreadsheet, since Geneva publishes that figure as a downloadable Excel file rather than indexed text. Treat the Geneva communal figure as a close estimate rather than to-the-decimal-point exact.