Switzerland delays Pillar Two deferred-tax guidance for 2024

The 2024 year is carved out

New article 2(3bis) of the Ordinance on the Minimum Taxation of Large Corporate Groups requires the GloBE Commentary as at 9 May 2025 to be read without the changes introduced by the 13 January 2025 administrative guidance on Article 9.1 for financial years beginning before 1 January 2025. The amendment enters into force on 15 November 2026.^[2]

The January 2025 guidance concerns deferred tax assets arising from certain tax benefits, elections or new tax regimes introduced after 30 November 2021. It generally excludes the deferred tax expense arising when those assets reverse from the effective tax rate calculation, subject to a time-limited and amount-limited grace-period exception. Switzerland’s timing rule therefore removes that later interpretation from financial years beginning in 2024, rather than disapplying the underlying GloBE transition rules altogether.^[3][4]

The grace-period cap carries 2024 reversals forward

For financial years beginning from 1 January 2025, new article 2(3ter) permits qualifying deferred tax expense during the remaining transition period, but only up to the cap in the GloBE Commentary. In calculating that cap, reversals in financial years beginning in 2024 are still taken into account. The explanatory report illustrates the mechanism with an original deferred tax asset of 1,000: a 20% cap of 200 is reduced to 50 for the 2025 year if 150 reversed in the 2024 year.^[2][3]

After the transition period, the amendment also excludes the relevant deferred tax expense from covered taxes for both the ordinary top-up-tax calculation and the simplified covered-tax calculation under the transitional country-by-country reporting safe harbour. The Federal Council distinguishes a reversal or utilisation of the asset from an accounting reduction or derecognition under GloBE Article 4.4.1(c).^[2][3]

Domestic relief may shift tax abroad

The Federal Council says only a small number of groups should be affected. For some, the change may reduce Swiss qualified domestic minimum top-up tax for 2024, but the QDMTT safe harbour may be switched off for the affected Swiss entities. A foreign parent or intermediate holding company in an income-inclusion-rule jurisdiction may then collect the corresponding amount; the report gives EU-headed structures as an example.^[1][3]

Multinational groups should identify Swiss constituent entities with relevant deferred tax assets, separate financial years beginning in 2024 from those beginning in 2025, and preserve the 2024 reversal data needed for the later grace-period cap. They should also test whether the timing difference changes foreign IIR reporting. The ordinance changes when the January 2025 guidance applies in Switzerland; it does not promise that a 2024 Swiss reduction is the group’s final global tax outcome.^[1][2][3]