Health insurance, blood donation, burqa ban You need to know these 26 changes in 2025 now

A nationwide ban on the veil, more expensive cigarillos and new rules for payments into the third pillar: various new provisions will come into force on January 1, 2025. An overview from A to Z.

Keystone-SDA

27.12.2024, 04:30

27.12.2024, 04:42

SDA

Anyone who has paid no contributions or only partial contributions into pillar 3a can plug these pension gaps from 2025 under certain conditions. The amended ordinance on this will come into force on January 1. By enabling subsequent purchases, the Federal Council is fulfilling a parliamentary mandate. Subsequent 3a purchases can only be made for years with income subject to AHV contributions in Switzerland. Such purchases are possible up to a maximum of the "small contribution" to pillar 3a. In 2025, this amounts to CHF 7258 per capita.

The Swiss Air Force is adjusting the range of its demonstration teams from the beginning of 2025 to save money. This mainly relates to the suspension of performances by the Swiss Hornet Solo Display Team with the F/A-18 fighter jet and the discontinuation of demonstrations by the Swiss Para Wings parachutists. The army intends to use these measures to concentrate its resources on the introduction of the new F-35 fighter aircraft.

From the new year, everyone in Switzerland will be allowed to donate blood. In addition, free blood donation will be enshrined in law. The corresponding amendments to the Therapeutic Products Act will come into force on January 1. The background to this is that gay and bisexual men were generally excluded from donating blood after the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic from 1988 to 2017 - regardless of their personal life situation and behavior. Until now, men have only been allowed to donate blood if they have not had sex with men in the past twelve months.

From 2025, the Federal Council will do without the box in the Bern City Theater and the permanent free pass for the Swiss cable cars. He already had these billed to him in 2024. He had received them free of charge until the end of 2023. However, the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) came to the conclusion that the permanent free pass could possibly violate the ban on accepting benefits. The Federal Council therefore decided to pay for the 2024 cable car season tickets. In a reassessment, it later decided to waive the purchase of season tickets for its members, the Federal Chancellor and partners from 2025.

In Switzerland, stricter provisions against underage marriages will apply from the beginning of the year. Parliament passed the corresponding amendments to the law in the summer session. They are aimed in particular at so-called summer vacation marriages. Marriages of minors concluded abroad will generally no longer be recognized if at least one of the spouses was resident in Switzerland at the time of the marriage.

In addition, those affected and the authorities will have more time to take action against marriages. In future, courts will be able to declare marriages invalid up to the age of 25 if one of the spouses is a minor. The revision only affects marriages entered into abroad. In Switzerland, the marriage age has been 18 for both men and women since 2013.

The value exemption limit for imports for private use will be reduced in the new year. This means that from 2025, travelers will be allowed to import goods for private use up to a total value of CHF 150 per person per day tax-free. If the total value per person is higher, Swiss VAT must be paid on the imported goods. Previously, the upper limit was CHF 300. With the amendment to the ordinance, the Federal Council is implementing a parliamentary mandate. The aim of this measure is to counteract shopping tourism.

In suitability areas, which the cantons must designate in consideration of nature and landscape conservation as well as agriculture, large solar installations with a winter electricity production of at least 5 gigawatt hours (GWh) now also have priority. However, the population still has a say. For example, votes on specific projects remain possible in municipalities.

For 16 explicitly named hydropower projects, there are planning simplifications with fewer opportunities to have a say than today. Hydropower plants may also be planned under certain conditions in biotopes of national importance, in certain water and migratory bird reserves, on glacier forefields and alpine alluvial plains.

Anyone wishing to build a photovoltaic system with an output of at least 100 kilowatts (kW) above a previously uncovered parking lot will now receive a bonus. Applications can now also be made for projects for wind energy, hydropower and geothermal power plants to receive a maximum of forty percent of the eligible project planning costs.

From the beginning of next year, new rules for cross-border inheritance matters will apply in Switzerland. People who have assets both in Switzerland and abroad will have additional options for arranging their inheritance. The new provisions reduce the risk of conflicts of jurisdiction and contradictory decisions by the competent authorities. These include cases in which someone moves abroad after retirement, dies there and leaves assets both in Switzerland and at their last place of residence.

At the beginning of 2025, a legal basis will come into force in Switzerland for taxing the income of cross-border commuters working from home. This will create the basis for taxing cross-border commuters even if they telework abroad.

As a rule, income is taxed in the country in which the work is carried out. If cross-border commuters switch to working from home, their income would therefore be taxed in the country in which they live. The changes are limited to Switzerland's five neighboring countries. Cross-border commuters in France can currently work up to 40 percent of their time at home, while in Italy the threshold is 25 percent.

Switzerland will provide better protection for foreign victims of domestic violence in future. From the beginning of the year, they will no longer lose their residence status if they leave a violent relationship. Instead, they will be subject to the hardship clause. Victims of violence are considered to be those who receive support from a specialist agency or seek protection in a specialized facility, such as a women's shelter.

Thanks to modern technology, the egg industry has found a way out of killing male chicks. A non-invasive sexing method is used to determine the sex of chicks that have not yet hatched. Thanks to the so-called in-ovo sex determination with special imaging technology, the sex can be determined on the eleventh or twelfth day of incubation.

In conventional farming, the changeover to gender identification in the egg takes place in one step. The technical equipment for this will be put into operation in both large hatcheries from the beginning of 2025. The processes should be fully implemented by the end of 2025.

Nationwide rules now apply to protect children and young people from depictions of violence and sexuality in films and video games. The law for providers of films, video games and corresponding internet platforms regulates in particular how they must label their products and what they must do to monitor age. Co-regulation is envisaged. This allows the players in the film and video game industry to develop the detailed rules themselves. If the industries fail to find a solution, the Federal Council can issue its own rules. Until now, the protection of minors has largely been the responsibility of the cantons.

From the new year, Switzerland will have milestones for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. The Climate Protection Act will come into force on January 1, 2025. The bill, which was approved at the ballot box in June 2023, sets interim targets for reducing emissions. It is the indirect counter-proposal to the glacier initiative. While the latter focused on bans - for example on fossil fuels - and a reduction pathway, Parliament preferred legally enshrined reduction and interim targets.

Anyone wishing to change their health insurance model can, in certain cases, do so during the year from January 1, 2025. A corresponding amendment to the Health Insurance Ordinance will come into force at the beginning of the year. Until now, insured persons who opted for an optional deductible of over CHF 300 and a free choice of service providers were not able to change their insurance model during the year. The system is now more flexible.

Those affected can now switch to a model with a restricted choice of service providers - such as a GP, HMO or telemedicine model - with their own insurer in order to pay lower premiums. It is still not possible to switch to another insurer during the year.

There will be changes to the Health Care Benefits Ordinance. From January 1, 2025, compulsory health insurance will cover the costs of head prosthesis therapy for premature cranial suture closure in infants if the insurance requirements for cost coverage by disability insurance are not met. The cantonal screening program for colorectal cancer in the canton of Solothurn is also exempt from the deductible. This is already the case in 14 cantons.

The maximum interest rate for consumer loans will be adjusted in line with falling interest rates. At the beginning of the year, the maximum interest rate for cash loans will fall from 12 to 11 percent. The maximum interest rate for overdrafts, for example for credit cards, will also be reduced from 14 percent to 13 percent. The reason for the adjustments is the falling interest rate level. For 2024, both rates had been raised by one percentage point each due to rising interest rates; this is now being reversed.

The consumption of resources and the environmental impact of products and buildings are to be reduced. To this end, the Federal Council is gradually implementing the legislative amendments from the parliamentary initiative "Strengthening the Swiss circular economy" from January 1, 2025.

Among other things, recycling will now take precedence over incineration. In the construction sector, cantons will be instructed to set limit values for gray energy in new buildings and for significant renovations of existing buildings. This is intended to create incentives for environmentally friendly construction methods. In addition, the Federal Council will be given the authority to set requirements for resource-conserving construction.

The Federal Roads Office (Astra) has updated the list of noises to be avoided. From 2025, it will be expressly forbidden to generate avoidable noise with exhaust systems, especially banging noises. Fines of up to CHF 10,000 may be imposed. Existing noise-related fines - such as for leaving the engine running unnecessarily - will be increased from 60 francs to 80 francs.

There will also be changes to the registration of motorcycles. At the same time as they come into force in the EU, motorcycles manufactured or imported into Switzerland from January 1, 2025 will have to comply with the new emissions regulations for initial registration. In addition, stricter noise regulations will come into force for initial registration.

The first parts of the Electricity Supply Act, which was approved by 68.7% of voters on June 9, will come into force on January 1, 2025. It lays the foundations for rapidly producing more electricity in Switzerland from renewable energy sources such as water, sun, wind and biomass. This should reduce dependence on energy imports and the risk of critical supply situations.

The law includes both support instruments and new regulations for the production, transportation, storage and consumption of electricity, and introduces a mandatory hydropower reserve.

Tobacco for roll-your-own cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos will become more expensive from January 1. Conventional cigarettes are not affected by the tax increase. The tax increase corresponds to a price increase of around 40 centimes per retail packet for fine-cut tobacco for rolling cigarettes, tobacco products for heating and snus. The Federal Council expects additional revenue of around CHF 45 million.

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR is switching off the outdated ultra-short wave radio antennas (FM) at the end of December 2024. When communicating the decision in June 2024, SRG SSR stated that people who listen to the radio will largely do so via DAB+ or the internet.

In order to receive DAB+, you need a corresponding device or an adapter. New cars have been equipped with digital technology as standard for several years. In addition to the modern channels, the majority of private radio stations in Switzerland, particularly those in French-speaking Switzerland, will continue to broadcast via FM. However, their deadline will also expire at the end of 2026.

From New Year's Day, people will no longer be allowed to cover their faces in public places in Switzerland. The law implementing the so-called burqa initiative comes into force on January 1. Fines of up to one thousand francs are envisaged for violations. The ban does not only apply to religious face coverings. For example, the new law also covers hooligans or violent demonstrators who wear face coverings.

However, there are numerous exceptions. Face coverings are still permitted in places of worship, at carnivals, to protect against the cold or for health protection. Authorities can also authorize face coverings at demonstrations if they are necessary to exercise the fundamental rights of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.

From 2025, operators of reservoirs with a storage capacity of 10 GWh or more will be obliged to retain sufficient water in the reservoirs for winter electricity production to cope with critical supply bottlenecks. They will receive a moderate lump-sum payment for this.

From 2025, AHV and IV pensions will increase by 2.9 percent. The Federal Council has raised the minimum pension by CHF 35 to CHF 1,260. The child allowance will rise from CHF 200 to CHF 215 and the education allowance from CHF 250 to CHF 268 per month. The increase in family allowances is the first adjustment since the Family Allowances Act came into force in 2009 and amounts to 7.1 percent. Family allowances are intended to partially compensate parents for the costs of supporting their children. The federal government sets a minimum amount per child and month for the family allowances paid out in the cantons.

From January 1, the full free movement of persons will again apply to workers from Croatia. There are legal reasons for this decision. According to the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons with the EU, the so-called valve clause can only be applied for a maximum of two consecutive years. In view of the immigration from Croatia in 2023 and 2024, the Federal Council had limited the number of short-term residence permits (L permit) to 1053 and the number of residence permits (B permit) to 1204 per year. This is no longer possible for the coming year.

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