Tax - Geneva: How to calculate wealth tax?

How to calculate wealth taxes in Geneva?

Updated on January, 10th 2024.

If you have already read the article about the cantonal and communal income taxes in Geneva, then the calculation of the wealth tax will be a piece of cake.

Otherwise, I would advise you to go have a look at it before you start reading the next paragraphs.

If you want to file your tax return for the canton of Geneva, don’t forget that we can free you from this burden. 😉 In the meantime, on this page, I present you 4 steps to calculate your wealth taxes in Geneva.

Ready… steady… go!

From gross to net wealth

First of all, addition the financial value of your belongings. This is your gross wealth.

Cash
Current account
Financial stocks (stocks, bonds, shares)
Private loans
Cars
Boats
Fiscal value of your real estate properties
investment fund shares
Art and valuable objects

Are you done? To find out the net wealth and move on to the next stage, you now have to subtract all authorised deductions.

What are they?

Debts : mortgage, unsecured debts and private debts.
“The franchise” : Most canton determines an amount which is not subject to taxation, and where this is not the case (Vaud, for example), the first few francs are exempt from wealth tax. In Geneva, it depends on your situation. For 2023, the tax allowance is :

Table showing the possible deductions for the calculation of wealth tax in the canton of Geneva

All good? Did you find your taxable wealth? Let’s move on to the calculation of the tax burden.

Cantonal and communal taxes (ICC) calculation based on wealth

The cantonal and communal tax is calculated according to what is called the base ICC. How to find the latter?

Take your taxable wealth and find out in which bracket it falls, based on the two lists below.

If you wish you can find them here. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the link leads to the 2021 rate. The canton of Geneva has not yet updated the 2022 rates on its website.

Determine the tax corresponding to the previous bracket (and addition the amounts of both tables)
Apply the rate of the current bracket to the difference between the maximal number of the previous bracket and your taxable income. Do this on both tables.

Table 1: basic tax on wealth

Table showing the basic tax on wealth in the canton of Geneva

Table 2: additional tax on wealth

Table showing the additional wealth tax in the canton of Geneva

Let’s use an example to clarify all this. You will see, in reality, appearances are deceptive and what follows is actually simple, as long as we take it step by step.

Calculation of the first table: basic tax on wealth

My cousin Chloé, single and without any children, who lives in Bardonnex and works in Carouge, has net assets of exactly 200,000 CHF.

To calculate her ICC on wealth, she has to subtract the 83,398 CHF free of tax.

She gets an amount of 116,602 CHF.

Her wealth is in the second bracket, from 114,622 CHF to 229,240 CHF.

As seen in the article on the income ICC, the first stage of the calculation of the base tax is the identification of the amount of the cumulated tax of the previous bracket. In the present case: 200.60 CHF.

To this amount, we have to apply the rate of the current bracket to the difference between the taxable income and the maximal number of the previous bracket.

In other words…or numbers: 116,602 – 114,621 = 1,981 CHF. The rate to be applied is 2.25 per thousand – you have to multiply by 0.00225 (and not 2.25% percent).

1,981 x 0.00225 = 4.46 CHF.

By additioning both amounts, we get 200.60 + 4.46= 205.01 CHF.

Chloé’s base wealth ICC is therefore 205.01 CHF.

Calculation of the second table: additional tax on wealth

Before we move on, since we are already in the middle of tables, let’s take this opportunity to evaluate the additional tax.

The steps are the same as those for the base ICC. If we go back to our table entitled: Table 2: additional wealth tax, we quickly realise that we are still in the 2nd bracket between 114,622 and 229,240 CHF.

Excerpt from Table 2 Additional ICC wealth tax

The first step is to look at the maximum tax of the previous bracket. In our example this is 0. Which saves us a few blue banknotes and a few gray cells.

We still have to apply the rate of the current bracket to the difference between the maximal amount of the previous bracket and that of the taxable income, that is 116,602 – 114,622 = 1,981 CHF.

1,981 x 0.0001125 = 0.22 CHF.

Chloé’s addition wealth tax is thus of 22 cents.

All this brain-bending for such a small amount!

Calculation of the cantonal tax

The cantonal and communal taxes are calculated according to the base ICC, that is, in Chloé’s case, 205.01 CHF.

For now, we do not take into account the additional tax but patience, it will come.

To this base ICC, we have to add…

The cantonal additional cents to the rate of 47.5 % for Geneva.
The additional cents of home assistance to the rate of 1% for Geneva.

205.01x 0.475 = 97.38 CHF.

205.01 x 0.01 = 2.05 CHF.

Chloé’s cantonal tax is therefore of 97.38 + 2.05 = 99.43 CHF.

Last step: Add the additional wealth tax. In our example, we take our CHF 99.43 and add our 22 cents.

Don’t give up, we are almost done!

Summary table of the calculation of the ICC wealth tax in Geneva

Communal tax calculation

Unlike income, it is only the municipality in which you live that will tax your wealth. At what rate? You can find here the tax rates per commune in Geneva for 2022.

In order to complete our example, we will focus on some municipalities:

Table showing the applicable communal percentages for the calculation of wealth tax

Don’t panic, there is only one step!
We need to find the tax rate of our commune, in our example: Bardonnex, and apply this rate to our basic tax. As soon as the 2023 values are available, count on us to update them.