Switzerland moves menstrual hygiene products to the reduced VAT rate from 1 January 2025

What changed in detail

The partial revision of the Federal VAT Act (MWSTG) adopted on 16 June 2023 adds a new item 10, Produkte für die Monatshygiene, to the goods listed in Art. 25 Abs. 2 Bst. a MWSTG. Those goods are taxed at the reduced rate. The referendum period lapsed unused on 5 October 2023. The Federal Council put the revision into force on 1 January 2025 and published it as AS 2024 438.

From that date, supplies of menstrual hygiene products in Switzerland are taxed at the reduced rate of 2.6% instead of the 8.1% standard rate.

The Act’s text still says “2,5 Prozent”. That was the reduced rate when Parliament adopted the amendment. The AHV financing decree had already raised the reduced rate to 2.6% from 1 January 2024. The Federal Tax Administration’s rates page lists menstrual hygiene products under the 2.6% rate from 1 January 2025.

The same revision also introduced the platform rule in Art. 20a, optional annual filing and revised exemptions for gold.

What it means

The reduced rate for these products is still in force. The pending AHV rate increase put to the 29 November 2026 referendum would leave the reduced rate unchanged at 2.6%, so it would not affect this item.

For sellers, the work is product classification: products for menstrual hygiene go in the 2.6% band, while other toiletries sold alongside them stay at 8.1%. Supplies made before 2025 stay at the standard rate that applied then (8.1% in 2024).