News

What happened

On 29 October 2025, the Swiss Federal Council opened a consultation on a new law for very large communication platforms and search engines. The goal is to strengthen user rights, increase fairness and transparency, and set baseline rules for services such as Facebook, X, TikTok and Google. The consultation is open until 16 February 2026.

This is not a “digital policy only” topic. Even if your company is not a platform, the draft could reshape how:

  • advertising and targeting are documented,

  • content removals and account blocks are challenged,

  • illegal content is reported and handled,

  • and how large services provide access to data for authorities and researchers.

What is changing

The Federal Tax Administration is implementing new security requirements for its ePortal services and will therefore stop offering “VAT-declaration easy” from May 2026. From that date, VAT returns will be submitted exclusively via “VAT-declaration pro.”

For many SMEs, this is not a “nice to have” update—it is a hard operational switch. If your company (or your fiduciary) still uses the guest-login flow, you must migrate to the account-based process in advance to avoid missed filings.

What happened

In late 2025, Switzerland adopted a new federal framework that strengthens corporate transparency and introduces a centralised approach to identifying and recording beneficial owners (UBOs). This package includes a dedicated transparency act and related anti-money laundering (AML) updates, moving Switzerland closer to international standards and reducing reliance on fragmented records across different sources.

Why this matters for founders, SMEs, and group structures

For many companies, UBO information already exists “somewhere” (share register, internal governance files, bank KYC packs, fiduciary records). The upcoming regime raises the bar by requiring consistent, up-to-date, and traceable UBO data and clearer internal responsibility for keeping it correct.