Taxes on the sale of property in Basel

It is not the sale price that is taxed but the gain: what you receive, less what the property has cost you. The allowable costs include the purchase price, the acquisition costs and value-enhancing expenditure – conversions and lasting improvements, but not ordinary maintenance, which is deducted for income tax.

Both Basel cantons apply the monistic system: the tax covers gains from private and from business assets, for individuals and legal entities alike. In each case the selling party is the debtor.

Basel-Stadt applies a rate that depends on the length of ownership. It starts at 60 per cent of the gain and falls with each year until, from the 25th year of ownership, it is a uniform 12 per cent. For properties that are permanently and exclusively owner-occupied it starts at 30 per cent. For properties that are not owner-occupied, the rate is additionally reduced according to the share of value-enhancing investments, down to 30 per cent.

The rate falls annually in steps; the table shows reference values. What is notable is the point at which the two columns converge: from the 15th year of ownership there is no longer any advantage from owner-occupation. Anyone who holds for a long time pays the same whether or not they lived in the property themselves.

Gains below CHF 500 remain tax-free. The tax falls due 90 days after the transfer of ownership. A statutory tax lien exists in Basel-Stadt only if the selling party has its residence or registered office abroad at the time of the transfer.

Basel-Landschaft does it the other way round. The rate depends not on the duration but on the gain: it starts at 3 per cent and rises progressively until, from a gain of CHF 120,000, it stands at 25 per cent. There is no rate reduction for long ownership; for owner-occupied properties, however, the taxable gain is reduced after the 20th year of ownership by CHF 5,000 per year of owner-occupation, up to a maximum of CHF 50,000.

In return there is a surcharge in the other direction: if the gain arises within five years, the tax increases by one and two-thirds per cent for each month by which the length of ownership is shorter. Anyone who sells after two years therefore pays noticeably more than someone who sells after six.

Two special features ease the burden on long-standing owners. If the acquisition dates back more than twenty years, the market value of twenty years ago counts as the purchase price, unless a higher one can be proved. And the acquisition costs are adjusted for the change in the value of money since the acquisition – by half for gains after 1991. Basel-Stadt has no such inflation adjustment.

Important for both sides: for property taxes in Basel-Landschaft there is a statutory mortgage lien that ranks ahead of all encumbrances under private law. The land is liable for the selling party's tax – so the acquiring party shares the collection risk. That belongs in every negotiation of a purchase contract.

In Basel-Stadt it is 3 per cent and is in principle owed by the acquiring party. If someone acquires a property and occupies it exclusively themselves for at least six years, it is halved to 1.5 per cent – and in that case, under the law, the selling party is liable for the tax. That is easily overlooked.

In Basel-Landschaft each side pays 1.25 per cent of the purchase price. A buyer who moves in exclusively and permanently as owner-occupier is fully exempt; the selling party only if it was itself the occupier and, as a rule within two years, puts the proceeds into a replacement property in Switzerland used in the same way.

Exempt in both cantons are, among others, changes of ownership in the course of the division of an estate, between spouses and in the course of a division of matrimonial property.

This is where the greatest structural difference lies. Basel-Stadt charges according to value: the notary fee for the transfer of ownership is 0.25 per cent up to two million and falls in stages above that, and the land register fee is one per mille. Basel-Landschaft charges independently of the purchase price: the notary by time spent within a range of CHF 800 to 2,500, the land register a fixed amount.

In practice this means: for a property worth two million, the fees in Basel-Stadt are in the upper four-figure range, in Basel-Landschaft a fraction of that. Who bears the fees is governed in Basel-Landschaft by the Fees Ordinance – half each, unless the contract says otherwise. In Basel-Stadt there is no statutory rule on splitting them; half each is contractual practice there, not a requirement. That is negotiable.

In both cantons property gains tax is not levied but deferred when ownership passes by inheritance, by advance on inheritance (Erbvorbezug) or by gift, and on changes of ownership between spouses in connection with matrimonial property law or in settlement of claims under divorce law, provided both agree.

The most important ground for deferral in everyday practice is the replacement purchase (Ersatzbeschaffung): anyone who sells a permanently and exclusively owner-occupied property and puts the proceeds into a replacement property in Switzerland used in the same way does not pay for the time being. In Basel-Stadt a period of two years before or after the sale applies; the land register entry is decisive.

Deferral is not exemption. The deferred gain reduces the investment costs (Anlagekosten) of the replacement property and falls due on the next sale. And the conditions are narrow: owner-occupation means residence for tax purposes, letting and second homes do not count, and more than the previous investment costs must be reinvested.

We tell you early on where the tax question becomes relevant in your case at all, which receipts you should gather and which selling costs are allowable – the estate agent's commission is one of them, evidenced by invoice and proof of payment. We do not calculate your tax and do not give tax information: that is the responsibility of the cantonal tax administrations and your fiduciary. Wrong information from us would cost more than a telephone call to them.

All information according to the official compilations of legislation of both cantons, as at November 2026. Tax rates change: the Basel rates have applied in this form since 1 January 2023. The text of the law is always authoritative, not this page.