Swiss environmental taxes are made up of the CO2 tax and VOC tax.
CO2 taxes raise the cost of fossil fuels like natural gas and heating oil. The stated goal of these taxes is to reduce CO2 emissions and thus protect the climate over the long-term.
The VOC tax (VOC stands for volatile organic compounds) raises the cost of volatile organic substances, such as those found in cleaning products and paint. This tax is meant to help prevent high levels of ozone pollution.
Neither of these environmental taxes are a regular tax. Instead, they are incentive taxes aimed at encouraging residents of Switzerland to reduce their use of harmful products. These “penalty” taxes are levied at their source, after which the money is redistributed to the entire Swiss population.
For practical reasons, this money is distributed by way of the general health insurance, which is compulsory for all residents. Environmental tax distributions are delivered as reductions in health insurance premiums.
Compensations:
2022: CHF 88.20 per year.
2021: CHF 87 per year.
2020: CHF 77.40 per year.
2019: CHF 76.80 per year.
2018: CHF 88.80 per year.
2017: CHF 67.80 per year.
Because environmental compensation has nothing to do with health insurance companies and is equally distributed to all residents, moneyland.ch does not account for these in its health insurance comparison.
More on this topic:
Health insurance comparison
