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Taxes: Delaying your declaration is to offer millions to the State
The costs paid by the taxpayer to extend the time of filing of the tax return reports to the tax authorities each year.
In 2024, the canton of Bern received more than 24 million francs for late taxes.
20min/Vanessa LamFilling and submitting your tax return is rarely a pleasure. Not to mention that the few weeks separating the reception of the necessary documents from the deadline for deposit in March are sometimes not enough. In the 2023 fiscal year, more than half of the Bernese requested an extension of delay. Five years ago, there were only 286,000, compared to 362,000 in 2023. Fees which report millions each year to the tax authorities. Last year, the Bernese state harvested approximately 2.3 million, reported “Berner Zeitung”.
And that’s not all. Added to this are the fees for reminders for tax declarations made late. Some 15% of Bernese taxpayers are affected. The more than 100,000 reminders issued have caused 4.9 million francs. Even more: with a moratorium interest rate of 4%, the canton of Bern received more than 24 million francs in 2024 for late taxes.
And on the French side?
If the Vaudois can request a delay, without cost, until September 30, in the canton of Friborg, where each extension costs 20 francs, “an amount of 1.4 million has been recorded for the invoicing of deadlines, in accounts 2024”, declares Alain Mauron, administrator in the cantonal contributions service. He adds that “the morator interests for natural and legal persons reported 7.8 million francs”.
According to the Geneva tax authorities, the costs of extending deadlines for the return of declarations represented more than 4 million francs in 2023. In the canton, taxpayers pay 20 francs to postpone the deadline up to 3 months, 40 francs up to 5 months and 60 francs for more than 5 months.
If the number of deadlines billed tends to increase in recent years, for Alain Mauron, this is explained in particular by the increase in the number of taxpayers. But also probably because taxpayers do not need to provide an explanation, as long as they pay the amount required to obtain an additional period.
Up to 10,000 francs fine
Over the past four years, between 29,000 and 30,000 tax declarations have not been filed in the canton of Bern. They can be overwhelmed or citizens who refuse to pay taxes. But anyone who does not submit their declaration can receive up to 10,000 francs fine. This was the case with “12,204 Friborg taxpayers in 2023. In 2024, they were 11,694”, notes Alain Mauron. To date, the canton of Friborg is still expecting 52,300 tax declarations for natural persons, over the 2024 tax period, and the Canton of Geneva, 98,000, out of a total of more than 365,300 taxpayers.