Buying or selling in Fribourg: the taxes nobody budgets for
Transfer tax when you buy, gains tax when you sell: two lines that weigh heavily and that nobody puts in their budget. With, in Fribourg, relief for a first home.
People work out the equity, the interest and the renovation costs. They almost always forget the two taxes that bookend a property transaction.
On purchase: property transfer tax
The buyer pays it. In the canton, the cantonal rate is 1.5% of the price, to which municipalities add their own multiples — the total charge can approach 3%. On a property at 800,000 francs, that is no longer a detail: it is a line to be financed on the day of the deed.
But Fribourg gives relief on the purchase of a first home. An allowance of 500,000 francs applies to the taxable base for a purchase of up to one million, and of 250,000 francs between one million and one and a half million. The conditions are precise — it must be your very first home, occupied by you as your main residence — and they must be confirmed in the notarial deed. So it is prepared before signing, not afterwards.
On sale: how long you kept the property
Property gains tax applies to the difference between what you sell for and what you invested. Its Fribourg particularity: the rate depends directly on how long you owned it. It starts at 22% for a resale within two years and falls to 10% beyond fifteen years.
In other words, a few months of patience can be worth several thousand francs. And the costs you incurred — notary, transfer tax, agency fees, work that increased the value — are deductible, provided you kept the receipts.
And if you buy again to live in
If the proceeds of the sale are used to buy another home in Switzerland that you will live in, the tax can be deferred. The window is two years, before or after the sale. It is not an exemption: the tax is postponed, not cancelled.
It is a calculation, not a guess
Every situation has its subtleties, and they often turn on the exact date of signature. Let's talk before, not after: +41 26 303 36 69.