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LIVING IN SWITZERLAND

What are the key dates in Switzerland in 2024?

From referendums to new road rules and higher rents, here are some key dates for your Swiss diary in 2024.

Published: 29 December 2023 16:59 CET
What are the key dates in Switzerland in 2024?
The Swiss national 2024 referendums are set to kickstart in March. Image by Thomas Zbinden from Pixabay.

January 1st

End of tax breaks for electric vehicle owners

As an incentive for people to buy electric vehicles (EVs), which are more environmentally-friendly than conventional automobiles, the government had exempted these cars from the import tax since its introduction in 1997.

However, from January 1st, EVs will be subject to the same 4-percent import duty imposed on traditional fuel vehicles.

AHV reform 21 enters into force

The latest AHV reform comes into force on January 1st 2024, beginning with a rise in VAT rates.

Then from 2025, the reform will see the reference age (formerly retirement age) for women gradually increase to 65 – a move that is expected to boost coffers of the old-age pension scheme.

From January 1st, 2025, the reference age will be raised by three months every year until it aligns with the male reference age (65) in 2028.

Police force can order blood tests

Also from January 1st, police will be able to independently order blood tests if they see so fit without having them approved by a public prosecutor.

The Road Traffic Act only requires a blood test in exceptional cases, such as when drug or medication consumption is suspected. The same will also apply to urine samples.

Extra parental leave

January 1st will see an amendment to the Income Compensation Act (EOG) coming into force. The amendment dictates that if one parent dies shortly after the birth of a child, the surviving parent is entitled to extra leave.

Specifically, if one parent dies within 14 weeks of the child’s birth, the surviving parent is entitled to additional maternity or paternity leave to ensure the well-being of the baby.

READ MORE: What changes in Switzerland in January 2024?

February 14th

February 14th will mark (aside from the Valentine’s Day) the beginning of Lent, which starts with Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday (see below).

Sadly, there are no public holidays in Switzerland in month of February.

March 1st

Anyone with a learner’s license or driver’s license who would like to acquire a new ID category in 2024 will no longer have to take an additional eye test from March 1st.

This new rule also applies to anyone wanting to acquire a professional ID category. Instead, your eyesight will be checked during the traffic medical examination which will next year be mandatory for anyone over the age of 75 – and not 65 as is the case until March 1st.

Also from March 1st, driving tests for categories A – motorcycles over 48 hp (35 kW) – and B – motor vehicles under 3.5 tons total weight – must include a drive on public roads for at least 45 minutes as opposed to the current 30 minutes.

March 3rd

On March 3rd, the first round of the national 2024 referendums is due to take place. Two pension and retirement issues will be voted on, including one on the 13th pension.

March 31st

Daylight savings time will begin, when we will set our clocks forward one hour and lose an hour of sleep.

Easter will also fall on Sunday, March 31st.

And, finally, March 31st, is also the deadline for Swiss tax returns to be filed.

April 1st

From April 1st, 2024, all new fast e-bikes – which is any e-bike with a pedal assistance of up to 45 km/h – will only be allowed on Swiss roads if they’re equipped with a speedometer.

Fast e-bikes that are already in use must be retrofitted with a speedometer by April 1st, 2027, to ensure that maximum speed limits, particularly in Switzerland’s 20 and 30km/h zones, are observed.

Anyone caught riding without a speedometer could be fined 20 francs, while those riding faster than the 20 and 30 km/h speed limit could be hit with a 30-franc fine.

Mandatory assistance systems for cars

Also, from April 1st (and the EU from July 7th), all new cars will need to be equipped with mandatory assistance systems for safety reasons.

This means that each car, regardless of the model’s launch date, will need to have the ISA cruise assistant, drowsiness and attention warning, emergency lane departure warning, emergency brake lights, a reversing assistant, and a black box.

Rent

In December, the reference interest rate rose to 1.75 percent. Landlords can now request an increase for the next termination date on a form approved by your canton and this usually falls on April 1st.

But don’t worry. In Switzerland, landlords must notify the tenant of the increase at least ten days prior to the start of the notice period.

June 9th

On June 9th, the second round of national referendums will be held, with issues to be put to vote yet to be determined.

August 1st

This month starts with Switzerland’s National Day on August 1st which is a public holiday in all cantons.

August also marks the back-to-school month, with dates varying by canton. 

August 1st will also see an important change for high school graduates as the 1995 legal regulations for the Matura (maturity diploma) will be replaced.

The Federal Council has now specified a minimum duration of four school years to obtain the secondary school leaving certificate. The curriculum will now also offer economic, law and computer science as basic subjects while student exchanges are to be promoted.

September 16th

On September 16th, all Swiss cantons (except Geneva) celebrate the Federal Day of Thanksgiving, Repentance and Prayer, locally known as Eidgenössischer Dank-, Buss- und Bettag (German), Jeûne federal (French), Digiuno federale (Italian) and Rogaziun federala (Romansh). 

It is a day of solidarity and fraternity, bringing people together and showing worshippers that they have a shared responsibility for each other and the world.

September 22nd

The third round of national referendums is scheduled for September 22nd.

October 29th

On October 29th, Daylight Savings Time will end, with clocks turned backward one hour, which means there will be more light in the morning.

Also in October, Swiss health insurance providers will also publish their official rates for 2025 which, hopefully, will be lower than current ones.

October 31st

Anyone in possession of a paper driver’s license must exchange it for the new card-format one by October 31st, 2024.

Should you hit Swiss roads with your old paper driver’s license, this will be considered illegal from November 1st and may result in a fine.

November 26th

In what has by now become a familiar trek to the polls, the Swiss will vote in the fourth (and last) round of referendums on November 26th.

November 30th

This is also an important month for people who have a compulsory health insurance (which is practically everyone in Switzerland), as November 30th is the deadline to cancel your plan and switch to another one for the following year — if that’s what you would like to do.

December 8th

As each year on the second Sunday of December, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) will publish their 2025 timetable on December 8th.

Trains, buses, and trams across Switzerland will adjust their schedules accordingly.

December 25th

Christmas Day is a national holiday and luckily falls on a Wednesday this year, which means you get a day off work.

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OPINION AND ANALYSIS

OPINION: Switzerland is a better place than 20 years ago, but much can still improve

From attitudes towards foreigners and improvements in work-life balance, Clare O'Dea examines how Switzerland has changed over the last 20 years and how it hasn't ('the Swiss still don't know how to queue'). Her new book All About Switzerland is now available - details below.

Published: 18 May 2024 10:49 CEST
Updated: 18 May 2024 14:45 CEST
OPINION: Switzerland is a better place than 20 years ago, but much can still improve

In the 20 years that I’ve been writing about Switzerland, I’ve tended to focus on one part of the picture at a time. Standing back from the canvas, I can see that there has been a pretty positive evolution in the country over that time.

The change has happened in measurable ways – an extra 1.6 million inhabitants, for one thing – but also in ways that are difficult to define. What I notice is more tolerance, more questioning of the norm, and more focus on fairness.

Some of this has come about through facing up to the wrongs of the past, whether that’s the historical abuse of children in the care system, the denial of the vote to women for so long (until 1971!), or the seizing of dictators’ assets.

Although it takes a painfully long time, mistakes and injustices do eventually come to light and there has been an appropriate reaction of self-recrimination and reflection towards these wrongs, and a willingness to make amends. All this has made Switzerland a better place.

READ ALSO: Are foreigners to blame if they find the Swiss unfriendly?

The foreign factor

When it comes to foreigners, there has definitely been in a positive change in attitudes towards immigrants from the countries of the former Yugoslavia. I detected very strong prejudice against this group in my early years in Switzerland. The second generation has now grown up here and found their place in all walks of Swiss life.

Unfortunately, asylum seekers have borne the brunt of xenophobia in recent years, with the notable exception of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s war of aggression, who were granted special treatment. Switzerland has welcomed more than 80,000 Ukrainians since 2022, about a quarter of whom have since left the country.

Several cantons, notably Neuchâtel, have led the way in extending more rights to foreign residents and making it easier for them to integrate or obtain Swiss nationality. But naturalisation rates are still low, which is a pity for the Swiss, if only they would realise that.

When I first came to live in Switzerland from Ireland, I benefitted from the newly-valid agreement on the free movement of persons with the EU and EFTA countries. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Swiss and EU/EFTA nationals have been free to move countries for work, adventure, love or retirement.

Those immigrant workers have been a boon to the Swiss economy, which has one of the highest levels of GDP per capita in the world. Travel wise, Switzerland is well and truly integrated into Europe, joining the Schengen Area in 2008.

OPINION: The true signs you are becoming more Swiss than the Swiss

Family matters

Just this week, my twin daughters, who are Swiss citizens, received their first ever ballots for the next federal and cantonal votes on June 9th. Apart from reminding me of the fact that foreigners in Switzerland are largely excluded from the democratic process, this landmark also reminds me of how times have changed in relation to maternity rights.

It is hard to believe that Swiss women did not have statutory paid maternity leave until 2005. Voters had rejected the notion that women should have guaranteed paid leave after giving birth on four previous occasions – 1974, 1984, 1987 and again in 1999.

For all those years, maternity benefits were left up to employers to dictate, which was clearly not enough protection for all mothers. Today, new mothers are entitled to 14 weeks statutory leave but most employers offer more than that. Since 2021, fathers in Switzerland have been entitled to two weeks paternity leave.

There’s definitely room for improvement in the area of work-life balance for families, and there are some ideas in the pipeline, including state subsidies for childcare. With a fertility rate of 1.39 births per woman in 2022, Swiss-born babies is not where population growth is coming from.

Taking turns

One issue that seems almost unfixable in Switzerland is the high cost of healthcare. The country has the second most expensive system in the world, after the United States. Most of the cost is shouldered by households, directly or indirectly.

Whatever about the cost, the care itself is excellent and relatively well staffed. With one in three healthcare workers holding a foreign diploma, including a large proportion of cross-border workers the system is heavily reliant on non-nationals.

On June 9th, Swiss voters will get to decide on two people’s initiatives, both of which aim to curb the cost to consumers. My impression in the past was that the Swiss were reluctant to vote for freebies for themselves. But this may be the right timing for these proposals, considering that voters accepted an initiative in March of this year to increase the state pension by 8 per cent.

When it comes to daily life in Switzerland, politeness and order is the rule, with one exception – the Swiss still don’t know how to queue! I had this experience just the other day waiting outside a small museum that was only letting in a few people at a time. If you can cope with that fundamental flaw, the rest is easy.

All About Switzerland

A dynamic, up-to-date guide to Swiss society and current affairs, All About Switzerland ebook features a selection of 29 articles by Clare O’Dea. The articles were first published by The Local Switzerland from 2022 to 2024. The ebook is available on Amazon, Kobo and other retailers.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Photo: Charly Rappo

Originally from Dublin, Clare O’Dea has lived in Switzerland for two decades. Author of fiction and non-fiction, Clare has had a varied media career in Ireland and Switzerland, with a stint in Russia. She has contributed articles to The Local Switzerland since 2022. Her new book All About Switzerland: Selected articles from The Local Switzerland is Clare’s fourth and is available as an e-book online.

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