Learn about Swiss tax and IBKR broker-statements
I’ve filed my own Swiss return for years and still got it wrong more than once. For example, I’ve paid for a fiduciary, (somehow entered CHF 13k of income twice), I only caught it by accident using ChatGPT that signaled it to me.
I never got to know how much or what I was allowed to deduct, different blogs cover different points, some of them are not easy to follow, or are outdated. Thus, I and a friend are working on a tool that helps you to prepare your tax return.
So, the part actually worth sharing here isn’t the tool though, it’s a blog for learning about the Swiss tax system (in papertax.ch/learn). This comes from the idea that one can’t claim a deduction one has never heard of. Learning the rules once, is close to free money, and it compounds like anything else.
For example, the securities deduction below is worth about CHF 225/year in tax saved on a 300k portfolio, if one misses it, by year 10 that’s roughly CHF 2.8k, by year 20 roughly CHF 7.4k, at 5%. Add a missed DA-1 reclaim on top and you’re closer to CHF ~1k/year between the two, which is CHF 14k+ by year 10 and over CHF 37k by year 20. To be honest,it’s nothing dramatic for a single year, but as we’re aiming at FIRE, things matter in the long run. There’s also a converter for the IBKR problem, one can generate a eCH-0196 statement, without linking your broker account (check papertax.ch).
Some of this stuff is genuinely more complicated than it should be. A few examples:
- Zurich has a flat 3‰ deduction on your securities value, capped at CHF 6k, no receipts needed. Most people never claim it.
- Accumulating ETFs don’t pay out, so nothing reminds you the reinvested income is still taxable. The figure comes from ictax.admin.ch, not your broker statement.
- DA-1 only reclaims tax actually withheld from you. VT (US-domiciled) gets you the 15% back, VWRL/IWDA (Irish) already lose it inside the fund, there’s nothing to reclaim.
In the page, we’ve built also some guides and a “glossary” about Swiss tax (58 terms) that could help build up your knowledge in the Swiss tax system, so one can save few CHF.
And a question back, since you’ll all have one: what’s the rule you wish you’d known before your first return? I’ll add the good ones to the guides we have prepared.