Married, registered or cohabiting: what gay couples in Switzerland need to know about their rights in 2026

Four years of marriage equality: the numbers

Since 1 July 2022 the Swiss Civil Code has contained a simple sentence: marriage may be entered into by two people who are of age and have capacity of judgement (Art. 94 Civil Code). Sex no longer plays any role. The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) took stock in December 2024: 417 male couples married in 2022, and 491 in 2023. On top of that came conversions of existing registered partnerships – 1,333 among male couples in 2022 and 449 the following year. Across 2022 and 2023, the FSO counted more than 4,700 same-sex marriages, from weddings and conversions combined. Male couples are in the majority, and they marry late: in 2023 the average age of men was 43.8 at marriage and 54.3 at conversion.

It is precisely this age that makes the questions behind the wedding so important. At 45 or 55 you are not only thinking about the party, but about your home, your assets, your pension fund and what happens if one of you dies. We have already explained what marriage equality changed in principle. This piece goes further: we look at where married, registered and unmarried male couples concretely stand today – and which decisions by the Federal Council and Parliament have been added in 2026. Where a law applies, we cite the article. Where something is still being debated, we say what stage it has reached.

Registered partnership: convert or keep?

No new registered partnerships have been possible since 1 July 2022. Existing ones remain valid, and nobody has to do anything. If you want to convert, you both appear in person at any civil registry office, prove your partnership with documents and sign a conversion declaration. There is no deadline. On request, the declaration can be taken in the wedding room in the presence of two adult witnesses – almost like a wedding (Art. 35 Same-Sex Partnership Act, PartG).

Legally, the conversion takes effect immediately: from the moment of the declaration, the two of you are considered married. Where a law links an effect to the length of a marriage, the years of registered partnership count too. One essential thing changes regarding property. In a registered partnership, each partner manages their own assets. From conversion onwards, the ordinary marital property regime applies, the participation in acquired property – unless you have agreed otherwise in a property agreement or a marriage contract. An existing agreement remains valid (Art. 35a PartG).

Is it worth it? In the state pension (AHV), disability insurance and the other social insurances, registered partnership is already treated the same as marriage (Art. 13a ATSG), and in inheritance law registered partners are on an equal footing with spouses. Marriage makes the difference mainly in two places. Only married couples may adopt a child jointly. And only the spouses of Swiss citizens can apply for simplified naturalisation: this requires three years of marital union and five years' residence in Switzerland in total, including the year immediately before the application (Art. 21 Swiss Citizenship Act). Then there is the property regime, which can be an advantage or a drawback depending on your financial situation.

Inheritance: marriage protects you

When a husband or registered partner dies, the other inherits by law: half if there are children; three quarters if he shares with the deceased's parents or siblings; everything if there are no such relatives (Art. 462 Civil Code). Since 1 January 2023 a new law on compulsory shares has also applied. Only descendants, spouses and registered partners are still protected, with half of their statutory share (Arts. 470 and 471 Civil Code). Parents no longer have a compulsory share. For childless male couples, this means that with a will you can leave your partner considerably more than before, without the deceased's family being able to claim a compulsory share.

Things are very different for unmarried couples. If you cohabit, you inherit nothing without a will – and even with one, inheritance tax can bite. According to the Federal Tax Administration (FTA), every canton except Obwalden and Schwyz levies an inheritance tax. Spouses and registered partners are as a rule exempt; for cohabiting partners the rules vary enormously. Two examples from the FTA overview for the 2025 tax period: in the canton of Zurich, a partner who lived in the same household as the deceased for five years gets a deduction of 50,000 francs; the rest is subject to the highest multiplier, six times the basic tax. Basel-Stadt taxes people in non-marital relationships at 6 per cent, plus a surcharge on the tax that rises from 25 to as much as 175 per cent depending on the size of the inheritance. By contrast, Lucerne (after two years of a marriage-like relationship) and Zug exempt cohabiting partners entirely. To see how your canton handles it, check the FTA's tax brochures.

State and occupational pensions: the widower trap

This is where many male couples get their biggest surprise. If one of you dies, the other is legally a widower – and in the AHV, stricter rules apply to widowers than to widows. A widower's pension is only paid if there are children at the time of bereavement (Art. 23 AHVG). A widow without children, by contrast, also receives a pension if she is at least 45 and was married for five years (Art. 24 AHVG). For a childless widower there is no such option. Men in registered partnerships are in the same position: social insurance law expressly treats a surviving registered partner as a widower (Art. 13a ATSG). Female couples are different: a married woman who loses her wife is a widow and falls under the more favourable widow rules, whereas a registered female partner is likewise treated as a widower.

Some relief already exists. On 11 October 2022 the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Beeler v. Switzerland that ending a widower's pension when the youngest child turns 18 is discriminatory. Since then, according to the Federal Social Insurance Office (FSIO), the AHV has continued to pay widower's pensions after the children come of age. For couples without children, nothing changes.

In the occupational pension (the second pillar), the situation is better. The BVG treats widows and widowers alike: there is a pension if the surviving spouse has to support at least one child, or is over 45 and the marriage lasted at least five years; otherwise a one-off lump sum equal to three annual pensions (Art. 19 BVG). The same applies to registered partners (Art. 19a BVG). Unmarried partners have no statutory entitlement. A pension fund may, however, include them in its regulations if the couple lived together continuously for the last five years (Art. 20a BVG). Whether your fund does so, and whether you need to register your partner with it, is set out in its regulations.

One point counts against marriage in the AHV: once both of you are retired, your two pensions combined are capped at 150 per cent of the maximum old-age pension (Art. 35 AHVG). Unmarried couples receive two full pensions.

Reforms in progress: survivors' pensions and tax

Both issues are on the political move. On 23 October 2024 the Federal Council submitted a reform of survivors' pensions to Parliament (bill 24.078). The National Council adopted it on 24 September 2025 by 102 votes to 95, in its own version: widows and widowers would receive a pension until the youngest child turns 25 – regardless of whether the parents were married. Bereaved people without children would get a transitional pension for three years. People who already receive a widow's or widower's pension and are over 55 when the changes take effect would keep it. The National Council also wants to scrap the 150 per cent cap on married couples' pensions for new pensions. The Council of States' social security committee agreed to consider the bill on 21 October 2025 and has been working on it ever since; on 2 September 2026 it asked for further analysis of the married couples' cap. According to Curia Vista, the bill is still with that committee. None of this is in force. For a childless male couple, the National Council's version would mean three years of pension after a partner's death instead of nothing, as is the case today. In return, lifelong widow's pensions would be abolished.

Individual taxation, on the other hand, has been decided. Voters approved the law on 8 March 2026 with 54.3 per cent in favour. On 19 August 2026 the Federal Council decided to bring it into force in 2032 – the latest possible date, to give the cantons time to adapt their tax laws. From then on, married couples will file two separate tax returns, just like unmarried couples. According to the FTA, for direct federal tax, couples with similar incomes will tend to pay less and couples with very unequal incomes more. Until then, joint assessment remains the rule, including for married male couples.

Children: adoption, surrogacy and a stalled reform

Only married couples who have shared a household for at least three years and who are both at least 28 may adopt a child jointly (Art. 264a Civil Code). Second-parent adoption – adopting your partner's child – has also been open to registered and cohabiting couples since 2018, provided they have lived together for three years (Art. 264c Civil Code). On top of that, you must have cared for and raised the child for at least a year (Art. 264 Civil Code).

For men who want to become fathers, surrogacy is the trickiest point. The Federal Constitution prohibits all forms of surrogacy (Art. 119 para. 2 let. d Federal Constitution). Couples who go abroad for it run into parentage law when they come home. In 2015, in the case of a Swiss male couple with a child born in California, the Federal Supreme Court ruled that only the parent-child relationship with the genetic father is recognised; the second father was referred to second-parent adoption, which was then only planned and has been open to registered partners since 2018 (judgment 5A_748/2014 of 21 May 2015). Until then, the child legally has only one parent.

Bill 25.073 is meant to shorten exactly this wait. On 12 September 2025 the Federal Council proposed dropping the one-year care requirement for children who have lived with both parents since birth; it explicitly includes surrogacy abroad among the cases concerned. The National Council went further on 2 March 2026, also deleting the three-year shared-household requirement and allowing the application to be made before the birth. On 17 June 2026 the Council of States sent the bill back to the Federal Council because it wants to fold it into the revision of parentage and reproductive medicine law. On 22 September 2026 the National Council rejected that referral back by 127 votes to 62, with 2 abstentions. Now the Council of States decides again. If it sticks to its decision, the referral back is final.

The larger revision itself is still being prepared. On 29 January 2025 the Federal Council set out key parameters, above all for allowing egg donation; according to its project page, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) plans the consultation for the second quarter of 2027. Surrogacy does not feature in these plans and remains banned by the Federal Constitution.

What else is still open

One issue affects single people too: protection at work. The Gender Equality Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, but according to a 2019 Federal Supreme Court ruling (BGE 145 II 153), not on the basis of sexual orientation. Motion 23.3238 by National Councillor Melanie Mettler sought to clarify the law accordingly. The Council of States rejected it on 24 September 2026, so it has been dropped. Pink Cross has criticised the decision and points to a representative 2025 survey in which 84 per cent backed such an amendment.

All in all, marriage has given male couples almost all the rights that mixed-sex couples have. The gaps lie where the law distinguishes by sex – in the widower's pension – and where children are concerned. In both cases, the Council of States has the next move. We will update this overview as soon as anything changes.

Last checked: 7 October 2026