Stamp Duty on Securities: A Hidden Cost for Swiss Investors
What the securities transfer tax is, when it applies and how brokers show it.
4 min read · Savings & Investing
Life situations: Investing and Wealth Building
When you trade securities through a Swiss bank or broker, a federal stamp duty can apply on top of commissions.
The basics
The duty is a small percentage of the transaction value, higher for foreign securities than for Swiss ones, and charged on both buying and selling. Funds are treated according to their holdings.
- Value with low-cost ETF
- Value with active fund
Example with default values. Open the calculator →
Costs add up
- Brokerage fees and the spread.
- Stamp duty on each trade.
- Currency conversion costs.
What you can do
Trade less often, choose low-cost brokers and check the fee table before you start. See how costs reduce growth with the fee impact calculator.
Try it yourself: Fund Fee Impact (TER)
Change any input and the result updates instantly. Nothing you enter is sent to a server.
Value with low-cost ETFCHF 548'438
- Value with active fund
- CHF 430'186
- Cost of the higher fees
- CHF 118'252
- Share of ETF value lost to fees
- 21.56 %
- Value with low-cost ETF
- Value with active fund