The imputed rental value ends in 2029: who gains, who loses
| 01 | The rent nobody paid you |
| 02 | What goes in 2029, and what stays |
| 03 | Which side you are on |
| 04 | Mortgage interest becomes a plain cost |
| 05 | What SORVA does |
| 06 | Common questions |
Every spring, if you own the home you live in, your tax return adds an income you never received. It is the rent you would pay if you were your own tenant. Then the return gives some of it back: your mortgage interest comes off, and so does what you spent keeping the place in repair.
From 2029 both lines go. Parliament passed the change in 2024, voters cleared the way on 28 September 2025, and it starts on 1 January 2029. You stop adding the rent, and for the home you live in you stop deducting the interest and the upkeep.
Whether your tax goes down or up depends on one comparison: which of those lines was bigger for you.
In one line: if the rent you add today is larger than your interest and upkeep together, the change lowers your tax; if it is smaller, it raises it.
The rent nobody paid you
The rent you would pay yourself is called the imputed rental value (Eigenmietwert). Your canton sets it, and you find it on your tax assessment, next to the tax value of the property.
An owner who lives rent-free is better off than a tenant on the same salary, so the tax office counts that advantage as income.
Against it, you deduct two things today. The interest on your mortgage. And the upkeep: repairs and maintenance, either the real bills or a flat amount instead.
What goes in 2029, and what stays
The imputed rental value goes for every home you use yourself, your holiday flat included. Upkeep on a home you use yourself stops coming off, for federal, cantonal and communal tax alike.
From 2029 the interest on your private debts, the mortgage included, comes off in one case only: if you also own property in Switzerland that you rent out. Then part of your interest stays deductible, the share that matches how much of your wealth sits in that rented property. Your own home and your own holiday flat count as nothing in that share.
A few things stay, and one is new:
- Your first home. Buy your first home and live in it yourself, and you may deduct interest for ten years, up to CHF 10'000 in the first year for a married couple and CHF 5'000 for everyone else, with the cap falling each year.
- Property you rent out. The rent is still income, and its upkeep, insurance and management costs still come off.
- Energy-saving work. The federal deduction for energy-saving and environmental work goes. Your canton may keep its own until 2050 at the latest.
- Listed buildings. Work on a listed building stays deductible for federal tax, and your canton may allow it too.
- Second homes. Your canton may levy a special tax on second homes that their owners mainly use themselves.
- Wealth tax. Wealth tax is not part of the change.
2028 is the last tax year with the imputed rental value and these deductions. You file that return in 2029, so the first return without them is the one for 2029.
Which side you are on
If you have paid off most of your mortgage, the rent you add is large and the interest you deduct is small. You gain.
If your mortgage is large, or was fixed at a higher rate, your interest may come close to the rental value or pass it. You lose the deduction that was carrying you.
A renovation can tip the sum. In the year you replace a kitchen or a roof, upkeep is often the biggest number on the property page. For the home you live in, 2028 is the last year it comes off.
Example (illustrative, not your result): your home has an imputed rental value of CHF 24'000. You pay CHF 9'000 of mortgage interest and spend CHF 4'800 on upkeep. You own no other property, and the first-home deduction does not apply to you. Today CHF 24'000 minus CHF 13'800 adds CHF 10'200 to your taxable income. From 2029 nothing is added and nothing comes off, so your taxable income falls by CHF 10'200. Same home with a larger mortgage: CHF 18'000 of interest and CHF 8'000 of upkeep. Today the home lowers your taxable income by CHF 2'000. From 2029 that is gone, and your taxable income rises by CHF 2'000.
You can do the same sum with your own last assessment. Take the rental value, subtract the interest and the upkeep you deducted, and look at the sign. A positive number is income you stop paying tax on. A negative number is a deduction you lose.
That gives the change in taxable income. What it does to your tax depends on your canton and the rest of your income.
Mortgage interest becomes a plain cost
Today the deduction makes interest cheaper than it looks. Say the last francs of your income are taxed at 30%. Then CHF 9'000 of interest costs you CHF 6'300 after tax, because the other CHF 2'700 comes back as tax you do not pay.
From 2029, if you rent out no property, CHF 9'000 of interest costs CHF 9'000.
That moves a sum many owners do in their heads: what a franc paid into the mortgage is worth against a franc kept somewhere else.
Pay back CHF 100'000 of a mortgage at 1.5% and you save CHF 1'500 of interest a year. Today that saving is worth about CHF 1'050 after tax, at the same 30% rate, because you also lose CHF 1'500 of deduction. From 2029 the full CHF 1'500 stays with you.
The other side of the sum has not moved. Money paid into the house is hard to get back out, and the bank decides whether you can borrow it again. Money kept elsewhere stays available, and what it earns is not fixed in advance.
What SORVA does
From 2029 your plan stops adding the rental value of the home you live in and stops deducting its upkeep. You can take your home's tax value and rental value from your tax assessment. You can set a mortgage repayment in a year you choose.
See what 2029 does to your own tax: create your plan at sorva.ch, free during the public beta.
Common questions
When is the last tax year with the imputed rental value?
2028, and you file that return in 2029. From the tax year 2029, the rental value and the deductions for the home you live in are gone.
Does this apply to my holiday flat?
If you use it yourself, yes, and your canton may tax it with a special tax on second homes instead. If you rent it out, the rent is income, its upkeep still comes off, and it counts in the share of your interest that stays deductible.
I am buying my first home. Can I still deduct interest?
For ten years, within a cap: up to CHF 10'000 in the first tax year for a married couple and CHF 5'000 for everyone else, then a tenth less each year. It has to be your first home, and you have to live in it yourself, permanently. It stops if you sell or move out, unless you buy a comparable home in its place within a reasonable time. If you bought in the ten years before 2029, you get the years that remain. If you plan to use pension money for it, see using your pension fund to buy a home.
Sources & review: Federal Act of 20 December 2024 on the change of system in home-ownership taxation (BBl 2025 23); federal decree on cantonal property taxes on second homes, accepted by voters on 28 September 2025; DBG (SR 642.11) Art. 21, Art. 32, Art. 32a, Art. 33, Art. 33a, Art. 205g; StHG (SR 642.14) Art. 9 Abs. 2, Art. 9b, Art. 78h Abs. 2; SR 642.116 Art. 5; EFD press release of 1 April 2026 on the start date.
Read against the enacted texts. Enacted, in force from 1 January 2029. Last updated: 2 November 2026.
Educational information, not tax advice. Projections are estimates from your inputs and Swiss rules as enacted; outcomes may differ. Your tax office sets your own figures.