What changes (and what doesn’t) when you get married in Switzerland?

What changes (and what doesn’t) when you get married in Switzerland?

Whether it’s your name, taxes or inheritance, getting married in Switzerland has not only personal but also financial consequences for the newlyweds. Here’s what changes – and what doesn’t – when you say “I do” in Switzerland.

your name

Since January 1, 2013, marriage in Switzerland no longer has any effect on your or your spouse’s surname. Instead, married couples keep their surnames after marriage, unless they decide to change it themselves. This also applies to same-sex couples who choose to register their partnership.

Remember that if both parties decide to keep their surnames intact and plan to have children in the future, they will need to decide on a surname for their future children at the time of marriage – and not after the child is born or adopted.

Citizenship

As with your surname, marriage in Switzerland will not affect your citizenship as each partner will retain their own citizenship.

For the Swiss, this also means that women can keep their place of origin — Heimatort in German, lieu d’origine in French, and luogo di attinenza in Italian — on official documents instead of automatically taking their husband’s, as was the case before 2011.

Although a marriage does not directly affect your citizenship, marriage to a Swiss citizen allows foreigners to obtain Swiss citizenship through a simplified naturalization procedure.

To qualify for this route, foreigners must be married to a Swiss citizen, have lived for a total of five years in Switzerland, have spent the year prior to submitting the application in Switzerland, and must have been married to and lived with the Swiss citizen for three years.

In most cases, a citizenship acquired in this way is for life (even if the marriage is not), but there are also situations where the opposite is true.

taxes

Perhaps one of the most important changes when you get married in Switzerland occurs within taxation. That is, your and your partner’s income and assets will be combined for tax purposes and must be declared together in a joint tax return.

It’s important to note that you won’t be taxed from the moment you exchange your “I dos” but throughout the tax year – meaning if you got married in July 2022, you’ll be assessed jointly for the entire year of 2022.

You are obligated to share information with your spouse.

Upon request, partners must, under federal law, provide each other with information regarding their income, assets, and debts.

Legacy

In general, statutory inheritance law applies in the event of the death of a spouse, provided that no other agreements have been drawn up beforehand, such as a will or a marriage or inheritance contract.

In Switzerland, the spouse always has the right to inherit. The law also dictates that his or her claim to inheritance is protected to a certain extent by a so-called mandatory share, which cannot be waived by a testamentary agreement.

Living arrangements

If you are married in Switzerland, you can only terminate your lease with the express consent of your spouse. Note that this is even if only one party has signed the lease agreement.

This also applies to co-owned property. If you want to sell a house that is owned solely by you but functions as a family home, you will need your spouse to agree to the sale before you negotiate.

Children

In Switzerland, if a child is born to a married couple, the man will automatically be presumed to be the father, unless otherwise stated. Similarly, both parents will be granted joint custody – this is also the case in the event of divorce.

Acquired property

If you and your spouse choose to renounce a marriage contract, the ‘participation in acquired property’ regime, also known as the customary regime, applies to your marriage.

This means that each person keeps all the assets they owned before the marriage, and any assets received as gifts or inherited during the marriage. This is known as ‘separate property’.

Each married person also independently manages savings accumulated during the marriage, such as in the form of a salary or bank interest. This is also known as ‘acquired property’.

Board

Any money paid into the pension fund before marriage belongs to the individual. However, after marriage, the money belongs to both parties.

In the event of a divorce, the money paid into the pension fund is divided. The person who paid more into the pension fund during the marriage owes the other person their share in the second pillar.

You will be expected to support your spouse.

Spouses married in Switzerland must provide their spouses with moral and financial support whenever necessary.