PwC’s global tax transparency and tax sustainability reporting study 2025

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47 Swiss companies reviewed 

Our analysis of 47 Swiss companies in the SMI Expanded Index shows that progress has been made in terms of tax transparency compared to last year. Nonetheless, there is still potential for Swiss companies to enhance transparency and align more effectively with evolving regulatory and stakeholder expectations.

This year, 33 out of 47 Swiss companies have published their tax strategies, marking an upward trajectory in tax transparency. This represents 70.2% of the Swiss companies analysed, a rise from 68.1% last year and a substantial improvement from just 54.0% two years ago. The steady increase in voluntary tax strategy disclosures, despite the absence of a legal requirement, demonstrates that Swiss companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of tax transparency.

Although the quality and depth of tax strategies varied considerably, a clear upward trend is evident within the specific sections of the study. When benchmarked against the PwC framework, the average company score in the Approach to Tax section increased from 43.1% to 45.4%, and in the Tax Governance and Risk Management section from 29.5% to 38.2% compared to last year.

This year's findings present a mixed picture regarding the integration of tax within sustainability reporting among Swiss companies. On one hand, fewer companies aligned themselves with the GRI 207, with only 20 companies (42.6%) doing so this year, compared to 25 companies (53.2%) last year. On the other hand, there has been an increase in tax transparency within TCFD reporting. This year, 31 Swiss companies (65.9%) identified tax—such as carbon taxes, energy taxes (including CO2 taxes), and plastic taxes—as climate-related matters in their TCFD disclosures, up from 63.8% of companies last year.

This year, as anticipated, the reporting landscape in Switzerland has been influenced by international developments such as the adoption of OECD's Pillar Two.¹ Nearly all Swiss companies addressed this topic in their reports, reflecting its implementation into Swiss legislation. Notably, 30 companies (63.8%) indicated how the new legislation affected their financial results (with several of them stating that the impact was immaterial). On top of that, one third of Swiss companies provided detailed explanations about the expected future effects of the legislation.

With the EU and Australia public CbCR requirements, tax transparency has gained further importance for Swiss companies, including banks. While EU-headquartered banks may be exempt from the EU’s public CbCR rules if they report under Article 89 of the CRD-IV Directive, this exemption does not apply to entities of non-EU headquartered banks in the EU. Therefore, Swiss headquartered banks with operations in the EU may be required to comply with considered regulations. Additionally, Swiss companies could be subject to public CbCR requirements in Australia if they meet the relevant criteria. As a result, Swiss companies must closely monitor these evolving regulations to ensure compliance and maintain transparency in their tax reporting practices.

^{¹ Global Anti-Base Erosion Model Rules (Pillar Two)}