7 · 26 cantons — the table, and what it says about Zürich

Zürich is one canton out of twenty-six. To place the finding of the last three chapters, the other twenty-five belong next to it — and two questions have to be kept apart that regularly merge into one in public discussion.

Question A: Can a legal entity in canton X file its tax return electronically at all? The answer sits on the canton's website. It is about a portal, a login and a checkbox.

Question B: Can third-party software — the product a Treuhand runs its mandates on — transmit a legal-entity return to canton X? That answer sits nowhere at the canton. It sits solely with the software vendor, in a helpdesk article that no authority publishes and no ministry cites.

This text lives in the gap between A and B. Answer only A, and Zürich reads as a front-runner, because it has had a portal since August 2025. Answer both, and the picture is a different one: electronic filing for legal entities has been mandatory in parts of Switzerland for years — by law, not as a recommendation — and Zürich belongs to the group where that route is not open yet.

The sources and their dates

Column by column, so every cell stays checkable: the canton's own solution comes from the respective cantonal website, with the date named in the cell. The column «aus Drittsoftware übermittelbar» (transmittable from third-party software) comes from helpdesk article 115000806069 of a Deklarationssoftware vendor, created 24.01.2017, last edited 03.07.2026 — we counted all 26 canton blocks individually. The column «Vorjahresimport» (prior-year import) comes from article 20082824383772 of the same helpdesk, last edited 18.05.2026. The column «eigene Regeln» (own rules) comes from the SSK rule catalogue for the eCH-0276 V2.0.0 standard, sheet «Regeln eCH-0276», column «Kanton / Canton», as at 31.03.2026: 1'432 rule lines, each with a carrier attribution, counted by us on 04.08.2026.

And the preliminary note that every row carries: We have never imported a file into a cantonal portal. Nothing in this table rests on a test. Everything rests on documents.

The count

26 of 26 rows, no estimate, no extrapolation.

Legal-entity return transmittable from third-party software: 14 — AG, GE, GL, GR, LU, NE, NW, OW, SG, SO, TI, UR, VD, ZG. Not transmittable: 12 — AI, AR, BE, BL, BS, FR, JU, SH, SZ, TG, VS, ZH. Transmittable for natural persons: 25 of 26 — all except JU.

The gap between natural person and legal entity is eleven cantons. That is the number at issue. Not «die Schweiz ist noch nicht digital» (Switzerland is not yet digital) — the natural person has been, for years, in twenty-five of twenty-six cantons. The legal entity is in fewer than half.

And a second finding, which puts the first column in perspective: the return path — prior-year data out of the cantonal solution and back into the third-party software — works for legal entities in four cantons (BL, LU, NE, ZG), for natural persons in fifteen. In Basel-Landschaft the cantonal legal-entity file can be read in, but no filing is possible out of the third-party software. The data flow there runs one way.

The mandatory cases, with the norm

The statement «es besteht keine Pflicht zur elektronischen Einreichung» (there is no obligation to file electronically) is a Zürich sentence that travels as a Swiss one. It is correct for Zürich and incorrect for Switzerland.

The canton of Ticino, Divisione delle contribuzioni, on the electronic tax return of legal entities, retrieved 04.08.2026, verbatim:

«a contare dall'1.1.2024 vige l'obbligo (art. 198 cpv. 2bis LT) dell'invio elettronico della dichiarazione d'imposta dal periodo fiscale 2023 in avanti» (from 1.1.2024 electronic submission of the tax return is mandatory under art. 198 cpv. 2bis LT, from tax period 2023 onwards)

That is a legal norm — Art. 198 Abs. 2bis of the Ticino Legge tributaria — in force since 1 January 2024, applicable retroactively from tax period 2023. Twenty months before the portal for legal entities went live in Zürich.

Geneva, support page for the legal-entity Deklarationssoftware, version 2025, retrieved 04.08.2026: «le retour par internet est obligatoire» (return via the internet is mandatory), and that since 2020, the same as for natural persons. In the vendor document of 03.07.2026, in the row «Steuererklärung NP/JP», GE, NW and OW carry the addition «(obligatorisch)» (mandatory). Glarus, notice of 22.02.2024 on legal-entity filing from tax period 2023, reproduced in the vendor document as the regime: «Es ist ausschliesslich eine Online-Einreichung möglich.» (online filing only)

That confines the sentence «es besteht keine Pflicht» (there is no obligation) to Zürich. In at least five cantons it exists, in one of them as cantonal tax law.

Zürich is one of the twelve cantons in which a legal-entity return cannot be transmitted from third-party software today, and it is the largest among them. Fourteen cantons accept one.

That is an opinion about the situation, not about an authority. It rests on a single vendor matrix that puts the same question to all 26 cantons and answers for Zürich: «Es ist derzeit keine elektronische Einreichung möglich.» (electronic filing is not currently possible) Anyone who wants to attack the statement attacks the matrix, not us.

«Elektronisch einreichen» (filing electronically) means four different things

Same source, same row, four incompatible procedures:

1. Fully signature-free — AG, GR, LU, TI, VD, ZG plus the Zürich portal for legal entities.
2. Optional paper release receipt — AI, AR, BL, NW, OW, SG, SO, UR, VS. Signature-free is allowed, it is not required.
3. Signed paper receipt mandatory — GE, NE, TG and, with the particularity of an alternative release via the cantonal login, BE. In Geneva this applies even though electronic transmission is mandatory there: file electronically and still take paper to the post.
4. Main form mandatory in the original on paper — BS, cantonal page on filing as a legal entity, as at 29.07.2026: «Das von der Steuerverwaltung Basel-Stadt zugestellte Hauptformular ist in jedem Fall zwingend im Original einzureichen (Mantel).» (the main form sent by the Steuerverwaltung Basel-Stadt must in every case be filed in the original)

Then the clocks. After transmission, nearly every canton runs a deadline after which the return is released automatically and correction ends: 48 hours (AG for legal entities), 72 hours (AI, AR, BS, NW, OW, SG, SO, UR), five days (LU, SH, ZG, ZH for natural persons), ten days (GR), 120 hours (GL for legal entities). Plus upper limits: at most three corrections (LU), four (NW), five (BS, SG). And, at the other end, Ticino: «Keine Korrekturen möglich.» (no corrections possible)

For a Treuhand with mandates in five cantons that is five different clocks, three different release logics and at least one postal item. The difference between the cantons here is not in the data model, it is in the deadlines and the release logics.

The holes in the small print

They all sit in the same source of 03.07.2026, in the small print of the respective canton row. Uri: «JP Kollektiv- und Kommanditgesellschaften: Derzeit ist noch keine elektronische Einreichung möglich.» (legal entities, general and limited partnerships: electronic filing is not yet possible). Aargau and Zug: «Kollektivgesellschaften können nicht übermittelt werden.» (general partnerships cannot be transmitted). Bern excludes «Formulare für Personengesellschaften, Erbengemeinschaften, Miteigentümergemeinschaften und unterjährige Steuererklärungen» (forms for partnerships, communities of heirs, co-ownership communities and part-year tax returns) and has no correction filing: «sollte per Briefpost nachgereicht werden» (should be submitted afterwards by post). «Elektronisch möglich» (electronically possible) is never a statement about all legal forms in this table.

What is said about it nationally — and what it costs

The implementation plan of Digitale Verwaltung Schweiz for 2026 lists the project INM2.084, service-owning organisation Schweizerische Steuerkonferenz SSK (the Swiss Tax Conference). Verbatim:

«Für juristische Personen ist erst in wenigen Kantonen eine elektronische Steuerdeklaration möglich. Die Mehrheit der für die Deklaration relevanten Daten müssen zur Zeit von den Unternehmen manuell aus der Erfolgsrechnung und der Bilanz herausgelesen werden.» (for legal entities, an electronic tax declaration is possible in only a few cantons so far; most of the data relevant to the declaration currently has to be read out of the income statement and the balance sheet manually by the companies)

The list of measures in the same section: M1 requirements (completed), M2 public tender (completed), M3 implementation in pilot cantons — not marked as completed —, M4 clarifications (completed), M5 implementation pilot with the MWST administration and Swissdec — not marked as completed. End date: 31.12.2026. Budget: 2024 CHF 100'000, 2025 CHF 100'000, 2026 CHF 50'000, 2027 CHF 0, total CHF 250'000.

That figure is the DVS coordination line, not the programme price. Read as the programme price, it is rightly refuted. The programme price sits elsewhere. The trade press reported on 16.05.2025: the SSK had run a tender «um Angebote für die 19 beteiligten Kantone einzuholen» (to obtain offers for the 19 participating cantons); four providers were sought for framework agreements, «dabei bildet die Vergabesumme das Kostendach» (the award sum forms the cost ceiling); «Für die Kantone gibt es keine finanzielle Verpflichtung und die finale Vergabe erfolgt mittels Mini-Tender-Verfahren.» (there is no financial obligation for the cantons and the final award is made by mini-tender). Cost ceiling in the standfirst: 35 million francs. And, verbatim: «Weitere Angebote gab es nicht.» (there were no further offers)

Two independent confirmations of the same procurement: the DVS line «M2 Öffentliche Ausschreibung (abgeschlossen)» (public tender, completed) and the Solothurn meeting minutes of 25.11.2025 — «eine Ausschreibung mit mehreren Softwareanbietern zur Vereinbarung eines Rahmenvertrags für eine gemeinsame Deklarationslösung» (a tender with several software providers to agree a framework contract for a joint Deklarationslösung).

One precaution we state openly: the same single press report lists four award sums that add up to 111,82 million, and sets a cost ceiling of 35 million against them in its own standfirst. The source does not resolve this contradiction. We do not resolve it either, we compute nothing and form no ratio. What is documented: 19 cantons, four providers, no further offers, framework agreements without financial obligation, award by mini-tender.

The only published cantonal timetable sits in meeting minutes

Not in a media release, not on a website: in the minutes of the exchange of experience between the Kantonales Steueramt Solothurn, EXPERTsuisse and TREUHAND|SUISSE of 25.11.2025, agenda item 8, presented by the head of legal entities:

«Der Standard «eCH-0276» wurde per 01. Januar 2025 in Kraft gesetzt. Gegenwärtig sind noch Anpassungen und Korrekturen am Standard in Arbeit. … Zur Umsetzung wurden durch die NEST-Kantone im laufenden Jahr entsprechende Umsetzungsprojekte gestartet. Es werde ein neues Ziffernschema, ein neues Ausscheidungsschema, ein neuer Hilfsdialog zum verdeckten Eigenkapital sowie intern ein neuer Hilfsdialog für die eBilanz bzw. deren Analyse eingeführt. Zudem bedinge die Einführung des neuen Standards auch neue Steuererklärungsformulare, eine neue eTax-Deklaration sowie eine aktualisierte Ablagestruktur im internen Archivsystem TaxViewer. Eine Einführung des neuen eCH-Standards im Kanton Solothurn sei für die Steuererklärungen beziehungsweise -periode 2026 geplant.» (the eCH-0276 standard entered into force on 1 January 2025; adjustments and corrections to it are still under way; the NEST cantons started implementation projects during the current year; a new numbering scheme, a new allocation scheme, a new helper dialogue for hidden equity and, internally, a new helper dialogue for the eBilanz and its analysis are being introduced; the new standard also requires new tax-return forms, a new eTax declaration and an updated filing structure in the internal TaxViewer archive system; introduction in the canton of Solothurn is planned for the 2026 tax returns and tax period)

That is the most detailed description of the implementation effort in the corpus. «Einen Standard einführen» (introducing a standard) here means touching six systems, two of which the taxpayer never gets to see. In the cantonal public-facing pages we pulled (as at 04.08.2026) this list does not appear; it is published in the meeting minutes.

And in the same minutes, agenda item 2.1, is what is already running at the other end of the line: «AVA / AVA Plus (KI-unterstützende Veranlagung): aktueller Stand bei 11.63 %» (AI-assisted assessment: current level 11.63 %), target 20 %; «Es handle sich um ein Risikoeinschätzungstool» (it is a risk-assessment tool), it checks «ob eine Steuererklärung den erwarteten Mustern entspreche» (whether a tax return matches the expected patterns). Today this concerns natural persons. Connected soberly, it still yields the sentence no programme document writes: structured balance-sheet data are machine-readable on both sides of the line. Agenda item 2.1 of the same minutes records a second, independent figure for natural persons: «AVA / AVA Plus (KI-unterstützende Veranlagung): aktueller Stand bei 11.63 %», target 20 %, described as a «Risikoeinschätzungstool». No link to the e-Bilanz of legal entities appears in either document; we place the two figures side by side and do not connect them.

What stays open — with method, not with conjecture

Which 19 cantons are party to the framework agreement: unknown. Searched on 04.08.2026 in the SSK procurement profile and in two targeted searches; the number is published, the list is not. Which cantons are «NEST-Kantone»: TG, SO and ZG are documented from primary sources; the total of 14 is a vendor's own statement; a published full list does not exist. Which pilot cantons DVS measure M3 refers to: the plan names none; the operator of the transmission network names a single cantonal partner. VS and SH: not verifiable for legal entities, the pages do not give the procedure. BL: the cantonal page answered with HTTP 403 on 04.08.2026.

We do not fill these five gaps with a plausible reading. We mark them.

One last finding, and it is the quietest in the whole table. The right-hand column holds exactly one «ja» (yes). The only canton that names the eCH-0276 standard on its own website is Obwalden, publication of 18.02.2026: «Ab der Steuerperiode 2025 setzen wir neu auf den schweizweit gültigen Übermittlungsstandard eCH-0276 für Deklarationen von juristischen Personen.» (from tax period 2025 we are moving to the nationwide transmission standard eCH-0276 for legal-entity declarations) Not Zürich, not Bern, not St. Gallen. Solothurn names it — in published meeting minutes. A standard carried by 1'390 shared rules, and for which 19 cantons have signed framework agreements, appears exactly once in the 255 documents reviewed, in a canton of around 38'000 inhabitants.

One prediction from this chapter, with class, grade and falsifier: the gap between natural-person connection (25/26) and legal-entity connection (14/26) narrows further and is at most six cantons on 31.12.2027. Class: trend extrapolation on measured input. Grade: A. Measured basis: the same vendor matrix, 26 rows, as at 03.07.2026; AR already carries «voraussichtlich ab 2026» (expected from 2026), SG moves to online-only filing for the 2026 tax return. Falsified if the same source on 31.12.2027, counted again across all 26 canton rows, shows a gap of seven or more cantons.

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