Canton Vaud: new opportunities for succession planning

The Vaud Grand Council recently adopted favourable measures, increasing the exemption thresholds for inheritances and gifts in the direct line. From now on, Vaud taxpayers and owners of property located in the canton of Vaud can optimise their estate planning thanks to the following changes:

• Gift tax The tax-free threshold for direct gifts has now been raised to CHF 300,000 per year per child (from CHF 50,000 previously). Each parent can therefore give up to CHF 300,000 to each of their children tax-free.

• Inheritance tax the exemption threshold has been raised to CHF 1,000,000 (from CHF 250,000 previously) for the share accruing to each hereditary branch of the first line of descent (each child).

These legislative changes provide an interesting opportunity to plan one's succession and optimise the transfer of one's assets to one's heirs. This increase in the exemption thresholds means that parents can make larger gifts to their children and enable them to carry out their own personal projects, such as buying a property.