Withholding tax in the canton of Vaud: tariff, 2026 rates and correction

The rate depends on your tariff (your family situation) and your gross salary. Here are a few lines from the official Vaud tariffs for 2026:

The 2026 rates are slightly lower than in 2025: for tariff A0, they were 8.38 %, 11.45 % and 12.62 % last year.

The rate applies to the gross salary, benefits in kind included. For your exact case, the cantonal tax administration (ACI) publishes a 2026 Excel calculator and the full tariff as a PDF (see sources). For an estimate of your net pay with Vaud withholding tax already counted, open our calculator set to Vaud.

How to read the code on your payslip. In Vaud, the code looks like "A0N" or "C2N": the letter is the tariff, the number is the number of dependent children, and the "N" means no church tax: in Vaud, every code ends in N. If your agency does not know your situation, it must apply A0, or C0 if you are married. The tariff B, C or H depends on your family: if your situation changes (marriage, birth, a spouse who starts working), the new tariff applies from the following month. Tell the agency straight away.

The Vaud law on direct cantonal taxes (LI) puts it simply: the same tariff applies throughout the canton. The deduction covers federal tax, cantonal tax and municipal tax. For the municipal part, the ACI uses an average tax burden across municipalities, not the one of your own municipality (art. 132 para. 2 LI).

Your municipality's actual rate only counts if you move to the subsequent ordinary assessment (TOU): you then fill in a full tax return, and your municipality's rate applies.

This is the point many temporary workers do not know. Vaud uses the annual model: each monthly salary is taxed at the rate that matches your income over the whole year, not just what you earned that month (ACI 2026 instructions, section 5.3.1).

In practice, to set the rate, the agency must:

• paid by the hour: multiply the agreed hourly wage (holiday and public holiday pay included) by 2'160 hours, the equivalent of full time;
• paid by the day: multiply by 260 days;
• assignment of less than a year: convert the salaries to 360 days.

The result: a month with few hours (bad weather, end of assignment, unpaid holiday) does not lower your rate. And the other way round, a big month of overtime does not push it up.

The 13th salary also counts in the annual income: if it is known at the start of the year, it can be included in the rate from January. At the end of the year or of the contract, the employer recalculates with the year's actual income.

If you have several jobs, for example 50 % at one company and 30 % at another, the agency must take your total working rate (80 %) into account. If it does not know it, it calculates as if you worked 100 %. Give it the information: otherwise your rate may be too high.

Fictional example. Nuno, B permit, lives in Renens, single with no children (tariff A0). In 2026 he works as a temporary formwork carpenter, paid CHF 33.00 an hour, holiday and public holiday pay included.

• Annual income that sets the rate: CHF 33.00 × 2'160 h = CHF 71'280.00, that is CHF 5'940.00 a month.
• Line in the 2026 A0 tariff: from CHF 5'901.00 to CHF 5'950.00 a month, rate 11.04 %.
• In October, Nuno works 176 h: gross salary CHF 5'808.00, tax deducted CHF 641.20.
• In December, he only works 120 h because of bad weather: gross salary CHF 3'960.00, tax deducted CHF 437.20. The rate stays at 11.04 %.

Vaud has three procedures. For all three, the deadline is 31 March of the following year (for 2026 salaries: 31 March 2027).

1. The recalculation ("rectification"). This is the procedure when the calculation itself is wrong:

• the taxed gross salary is wrong;
• the annual income that sets the rate is wrong;
• the wrong tariff was applied.

You cannot add deductions this way. Ask your agency first: it can correct things itself until 31 March, with a "corrective list". Otherwise, write to the ACI withholding tax section.

Tariff C: it assumes your spouse earns as much as you, capped at CHF 70'500.00 in 2026. If your spouse actually earns less, you can ask for a recalculation with supporting documents.

2. The request for a decision. If you dispute the amount deducted, or if the agency has not given you a certificate, you can ask the ACI for an official decision (art. 137 DBG and art. 191 LI). In the meantime, the agency keeps deducting the tax.

3. The subsequent ordinary assessment (TOU). This is the procedure to have your actual deductions counted. It is mandatory if your gross salary exceeds CHF 120'000.00 in the year, or if you have taxable assets of more than CHF 60'000.00 (single person) or CHF 120'000.00 (couple). You apply with ACI form 21049. Once requested, it cannot be withdrawn and it continues every year. How it all works is explained in our article Withholding tax: how to get it back.

What the Vaud tariff already counts as a flat rate: CHF 800.00 of travel costs a year, CHF 3'200.00 for meals, and 3 % for professional expenses. If you drive a long way to the site every day, your actual costs may be much higher (CHF 0.75 per km in 2026): this is one of the cases where the TOU can be worth it. Do the maths first, or ask for advice: the TOU is not always in your favour.

Where to write: Office d'impôt des districts de Lausanne et Ouest lausannois, Section impôt à la source / TOU, Rue Caroline 11 bis, case postale 1142, 1001 Lausanne. Tel. 021 316 20 65.

Your certificate: in Vaud, this is the salary certificate the agency gives you with the last salary of the year. The total tax deducted is in box 12. Keep it: it is your proof.

Vaud applies the 1983 France-Switzerland agreement: if you live in France and go home every day, your salary is taxed in France, not in Vaud. The G permit alone is not enough. You must give the agency the tax residence certificate (form 2041-AS), stamped by the French tax administration, in two copies, before your first day of work, and then before 1 January each year.

Other conditions: as a rule, return to France every day (45 nights a year outside France are allowed) and no more than 40 % remote work.

Without the certificate, the agency must deduct withholding tax. If you hand it in later in the year, the agency can correct and refund the tax, but only until 31 March of the following year. In temporary work, hand it in at your first assignment. For the full list of documents, see Cross-border worker: first assignment in Switzerland.