In the canton of Basel-Landschaft, inheritance tax is calculated on the net share received by each heir or legatee.
The amount payable depends mainly on the relationship between the beneficiary and the deceased. Close family members are exempt, while other beneficiaries may be taxed.
Who is exempt and who must pay?
The rules of Basel-Landschaft distinguish beneficiaries according to their family relationship with the deceased:
- Exempt close relatives: The surviving spouse, the registered partner and the direct descendants, such as children and grandchildren, pay no inheritance tax in Basel-Landschaft.
- Other beneficiaries who are taxed: The other heirs and legatees pay tax on the net share they receive. This concerns in particular the parents, adopted children or stepchildren, brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces, cohabiting partners and persons with no family relationship. The scale is progressive and persons with no family relationship are generally taxed most heavily.
How is the tax calculated and which canton may levy it?
The tax is levied on the net value of the share received. The competent canton also depends on the deceased's last domicile and on where the immovable property is situated:
- Deduction of debts and expenses: The deceased's debts are deducted from the gross estate. Certain expenses connected with the death and the succession may also be deducted, in particular funeral expenses, inventory costs, the executor's fees and administrative charges.
- Allocation between the cantons: If the deceased had their last domicile in Basel-Landschaft, the canton may tax their movable property. Where immovable property is situated in another canton, or a person domiciled elsewhere owned immovable property in Basel-Landschaft, the cantons share the taxing power according to common rules. This allocation avoids double taxation.
Basel-Landschaft applies its own rules, because there is no federal inheritance tax in Switzerland. The canton of Zurich follows a similar logic, set out in our article on inheritance tax in Zurich.
Legal sources
Federal legislation:
- Art. 127 para. 3 Cst.(cited inBGE 150 I 31 ; Federal Supreme Court judgment 9C_102/2023 ) (constitutional principle prohibiting intercantonal double taxation and delimitation of the tax sovereignty of the cantons)
- Art. 560 para. 1 SCC(cited inBGE 118 Ia 41 (Note: This decision is more than two years old; its current legal relevance should be checked) (universal succession of heirs by operation of law and the resulting transfer of tax liability)
- Art. 12 DFTAandArt. 53a THA (succession of heirs to the deceased's tax rights and obligations and simplified supplementary tax assessment)
- Art. 1 InvO (obligation to draw up an official estate inventory by the competent authority of the last domicile or the location of the assets)
- Art. 27a paras. 1 and 3 OSB (valuation of the estate according to the domicile canton's wealth tax rules as of the date of death and intercantonal allocation value of immovable property)
Cantonal legislation of Basel-Landschaft:
- Art. 1 Const. BL (sovereignty of the canton of Basel-Landschaft as the basis for its legislative and tax autonomy)
- § 1 and § 10 EStG/BL (cited in BGE 87 I 163 (Note: This decision is more than two years old; its current legal relevance should be checked) (liability for property acquired upon death and tax scale graduated according to kinship)
Federal case law:
- BGE 87 I 163 (application of the Basel-Landschaft inheritance tax scale based on the marital status and legal parentage of the beneficiaries) (Note: This decision is more than two years old; its current legal relevance should be checked)
- BGE 118 Ia 41 (individual liability of each heir at their place of domicile for their movable share and prohibition on taxing the community of heirs as a whole in intercantonal situations) (Note: This decision is more than two years old; its current legal relevance should be checked)
- BGE 150 I 31 and Federal Supreme Court judgment 2P.98/2004 (rules for intercantonal allocation of inheritance tax, imputation of the allocation value on immovable property, and proportional allocation of estate debts) (Note: These decisions are more than two years old; their current legal relevance should be checked)
- Federal Supreme Court judgment 2P.314/2001 (nature of a tax on hereditary shares calculated on the net value received, and proportional treatment of estate charges and liabilities) (Note: This decision is more than two years old; its current legal relevance should be checked)