- Under Article 131 paragraph 3 of the Federal Constitution and Article 45 of the Alcohol Act, the cantons have to use the alcohol tenth to combat the causes and effects of alcoholism, as well as the abuse of addictive substances, narcotics and medications.
- The cantons have to prepare an annual report for the Federal Council regarding the use of their share (Art. 45 para. 2 of the Alcohol Act). As this report refers solely to the preventive measures financed directly with the alcohol tenth, it often covers only some of the total cantonal expenditure in this area.
- If the total amount of the alcohol tenth paid by the Confederation to a canton could not be used during the fiscal year, the balance is transferred to the general compensation fund and is used to finance institutions and projects described in Article 45 paragraph 2 of the Alcohol Act in future fiscal years.
- The development of the state of the cantonal funds between the beginning and end of a calendar year does not necessarily correspond to the difference between the tithes received from the Confederation and the amounts disbursed by the cantons for the same period. In some cantons, the tithe is mixed with other sources of funding within a larger fund. Interest from the fund and costs must also be taken into account.
- Although the Confederation is responsible for combining and consolidating the cantonal reports, the cantons have to check that the alcohol tenth is used in compliance with the Constitution.
- The cantonal reports published for a given year deal with projects and institutions funded in the year prior to this publication. In that year, the FOCBS distributed to the cantons the tithe of the alcohol from the net profit of the previous year (concrete example: the 2020 cantonal reports report on the use of the tithe allocated in 2019, based on the revenues made in 2018).
- The cantonal reports are sorted according to the official order for the cantons.
