Tourist tax in Nendaz: the owner's guide

The municipal regulation of Nendaz: the essential foundation

In Valais, the tourist tax is not a cantonal matter but a municipal one. The canton sets the framework - the Tourism Act of 9 February 1996 and the ordinance of 10 December 2014 - and each municipality adopts its own regulation, sets its own rates and organises collection. This is why what you know about Verbier, Crans-Montana or Zermatt does not apply in Nendaz: you have to read the text adopted by the municipality of Nendaz, and that text alone.

That text changed recently: the new regulation on the tourist tax of the municipality of Nendaz came into force on 1 November 2025. It redefines the rates, the tourist zoning and the method of collection. An owner who put a property on the rental market a few years ago and has not followed this revision is working today with obsolete figures and obsolete reasoning.

The principle remains simple and unchanged: liable persons are guests who spend the night on the territory of the municipality without being domiciled there - your guests, but also you, your family and your visitors when you occupy the property. And above all: whoever provides the accommodation is responsible for collecting the tax from those persons and for paying it over to the collecting body, failing which he is personally liable for it. In other words, the municipality does not pursue the guest who has not paid: it turns to the owner.

The rates: CHF 5.– in zone 1, CHF 3.– in zone 2

Since 1 November 2025, for holiday accommodation - apartment, studio, chalet, room - the tourist tax is CHF 5.– per adult per night in tourist zone 1 and CHF 3.– in tourist zone 2. The same rate applies to hotels and structured accommodation. Group accommodation (group lodgings, mountain huts), campsites and short-stay motorhome areas fall under a lower rate: CHF 4.– in zone 1 and CHF 2.40 in zone 2.

Children aged 6 to 16 pay half the rate. Children under 6 are exempt, as are persons domiciled within the municipality and persons visiting a family member who is not liable for the tax. The regulation provides for further exemptions, notably for pupils and students of establishments recognised by the Canton of Valais during term time, and for persons on official duty.

The point many owners discover too late is that everything depends on the zone in which your property is located. The municipality is divided into two tourist zones, the map of which is appended to the municipal regulation. This zoning is anything but a detail: it determines both the nightly rate you charge your guests and the amount of the annual flat rate if you occupy the property yourself. Before any letting, the first question to put to the municipal administration is therefore: is my property in zone 1 or zone 2?

The annual flat rate: what a second home in own use pays

Nendaz has a very high proportion of second homes, often occupied only a few weeks a year. For these properties, the regulation does not require counting each night: the owner liable for the tax who occupies the property himself pays an annual flat rate, which covers every night spent in the property - his own, those of his family, his guests and his occasional tenants.

The flat rate is calculated transparently: it is based on the rate applicable to the zone, on an average occupancy of 50 nights per year, and on the gross floor area of the property as determined by the municipal services on the basis of the Federal Register of Buildings and Dwellings (RegBL). In tourist zone 1, the scale runs from CHF 500.– for a property under 45 m² to CHF 750.– (46 to 65 m²), CHF 1,000.– (66 to 90 m²), CHF 1,250.– (91 to 120 m²), CHF 1,500.– (121 to 150 m²) and CHF 1,750.– above 150 m². In tourist zone 2, the same scale runs from CHF 300.– to CHF 1,050.–.

Two reliefs are worth knowing, because they are rarely claimed spontaneously. Properties whose water supply has been cut off - with the inlet valve sealed - are deemed uninhabitable and exempt. And properties whose equipment, in particular the water connection, does not allow occupation during the winter season benefit from a 40% reduction of the flat rate. That still has to be reported to the municipality.

Mixed use: the real point of vigilance in Nendaz

This is the least well understood part of the regulation, and the one that costs the most when handled badly. The text is clear on the principle: holiday accommodation let exclusively on a commercial basis is not subject to the annual flat rate. A property genuinely operated as a short-term rental all year round falls under the per-night tax, collected from guests, not under a flat rate.

But the regulation immediately adds the counterpart: the owner of a commercially let property must produce any supporting document proving the exclusively commercial use of the property. This is not a declaration on one's honour: it is a burden of proof, which requires keeping a clean, documented record of occupancy, stay by stay.

Yet the most common situation in Nendaz is neither purely private use nor purely commercial letting: it is mixed use. The owner comes for a week or two in February, lends the apartment to relatives at Easter, and lets it for the rest of the season. In that case you need to know precisely which regime applies, and to be able to demonstrate it. An incomplete file means the annual flat rate applies on top of the tax already collected from guests. This is one of the first points we clarify with the municipality when we take a property under management.

Declaring, paying, proving: the practical procedure

The overnight-stay statistics are an obligation distinct from paying the tax, and they follow two different rhythms. Professional hosts and rental agencies must report to the municipality every month the number of actual overnight stays and their country of origin, by the 10th of the following month. A holiday-accommodation host must, in agreement with the municipality, report over a longer period, but at least twice a year, by 10 May and 10 November.

On the payment side, taxes owed by structured and group accommodation are settled at the same time as the statement of overnight stays is submitted, or within 30 days of receipt of the invoice. The annual flat rate for holiday accommodation belonging to a non-domiciled owner is invoiced once a year, also payable within 30 days. Invoicing and collection are handled by the municipality of Nendaz, which may delegate all or part of this task.

Finally, the regulation sets out what happens when nothing is declared. Where the debtor fails to provide the necessary information or to pay the tax on time, the municipal council proceeds, after an unsuccessful formal reminder, to an assessment by default - a decision equivalent to an enforceable judgment within the meaning of the Federal Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act, the costs of which are borne by the assessed debtor. The offender is also liable to a fine under the cantonal Tourism Act. The municipality is moreover entitled to check the regularity of payments and to verify the occupancy and use of holiday accommodation, and owners may not object to such checks. This is why an owner who has never declared anything is exposed to a retroactive recovery, not to a mere reminder.

Airbnb, Booking and direct bookings: who collects what?

This is a permanent source of confusion. Depending on the platform and on the settings of your listing, the tourist tax may be collected directly by the platform and remitted, be charged separately to the guest at the time of the stay, or quite simply remain at your expense because nothing has been configured and it has never been added to the price. In that last case it comes out of your pocket for every night, without you realising it before the municipal invoice arrives.

And above all: whatever the collection route, the owner remains responsible towards the municipality. With direct bookings - your own website, word of mouth, loyal guests who come back every year - there is no intermediary: collection, record-keeping and remittance are entirely down to you. Checking these settings property by property and channel by channel is one of the first things we do when we take a property under management, and one of the most immediate sources of savings for an owner who was managing alone.

Note that the tourist tax is only one part of a landlord owner's obligations: notification to the municipality, the Lex Weber status of the property and the declaration of guests are set out in our guide to the regulations governing short-term rentals in Nendaz. Between two declared stays, logistics follow their own rules: the organisation of cleaning in Nendaz has its own dedicated page.

What the tax funds - and why that is a selling point

The proceeds of the tourist tax must be used in the interest of those who pay it: they fund the operation of an information and booking service, local events, and the creation and operation of tourist, cultural and sports infrastructure and facilities. The regulation expressly prohibits their use for tourism promotion or for the municipality's ordinary tasks, and earmarks a minimum amount per night collected for the funding of that infrastructure.

In practice, in Nendaz, this translates into facilities your guests actually use during their stay: the swimming pool, the ice rink, the free resort shuttles, the hiking trails and the mountain-bike routes. This is something to state in your listing and in your welcome book, rather than an extra line perceived as an opaque charge on arrival. A family that understands that the tax it pays funds the shuttle it takes every morning and the pool where it spends a rainy afternoon does not experience it the same way.

What our concierge service automates for you

For every booking, our system applies the correct rate according to the property's tourist zone and the guest category - adult, child aged 6 to 16, exemption - keeps the record of overnight stays and their country of origin, and transmits the information to the municipality within the deadlines set by the regulation. The amount remitted appears in black and white in your reporting, alongside your income.

We also manage the interaction between the annual flat rate and actual letting, which is the sensitive point in Nendaz: if your property moves from own use to commercial operation, we make sure your status with the municipality reflects reality and that the supporting documents exist on the day they are asked for. This is one of the compliance strands of our Nendaz concierge service, alongside the notification obligations described in our guide to the regulations in Nendaz, within our all-inclusive rental management.