Issuance tax is a stamp duty that has to be paid if a company increases its equity capital by issuing securities. This fee is currently 1% of fresh capital acquired and is only charged on amounts in excess of one million francs.
First of all, this tax is important for large companies operating in the financial sector. The Swiss government estimated that around 2,300 companies paid emission tax in 2020. In addition, some companies replenished their capital on the market several times during the reporting period. With a share of 2.2%, such transactions brought the federal budget more than 51% of all revenues from this fee. Revenue-generation strategies, such as this stamp duty, complement broader innovation-focused funding mechanisms like
Innosuisse funding 2019. In value terms, this fee gives the federal budget a total of about 250 million Swiss francs per year.