Most cantons exempt spouses, and many exempt direct descendants, but rates and exemptions vary. Solothurn is unusual in also using an estate-tax concept; most cantonal systems focus on the individual beneficiary.
For an international family, the harder question is not the Swiss rate. It is which countries still claim taxing rights over the estate or gift.
Start with the Swiss canton
Inheritance and gift tax can depend on the deceased’s or donor’s canton, the type and location of assets, and the relationship between donor/deceased and recipient. Real estate is often taxed where it is located.
Lifetime gifts are not automatically outside the system. Cantons have different rules for bringing prior gifts back into the inheritance-tax calculation. The source material identifies especially strict treatment in Geneva and specific five-year rules in Lucerne and Neuchâtel for certain cases.
Some countries retain inheritance- or estate-tax claims after a person moves away, based on domicile, nationality, deemed domicile or asset situs. The United States can tax estates of US citizens worldwide. The UK’s post-2025 inheritance-tax regime uses long-term residence concepts. Other countries have their own tail rules.
That means “I now live in Schwyz” is not an estate plan.
Treaties are not universal
Switzerland has fewer inheritance-tax treaties than income-tax treaties. Where no treaty resolves competing claims, domestic relief mechanisms and asset location become important.
The clean sequence is: map citizenships and former-country exposure, identify where each asset is situated, determine the Swiss cantonal treatment, then choose whether lifetime gifting, holding structures, wills or marital-property planning actually improve the result.
