r/SwissFIRE

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or what I was allowed to deduct, different blogs cover different points, some of them are not easy to follow, or are outdated.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.

Throwaway account for obvious reasons.

I put my (35M) notice at work and will FIRE soon in Switzerland. Happy to listen to advice or answer questions.

Assets:

• CHF 3.2 mln in VT or VT-like ETFs
• CHF 120k in cash or bank accounts
• CHF 320k in 2nd pillar
• No significant tangible assets (no car, no house)
• No debts

Past Expenses:

Numbers do not include state-related outflows (taxes, AHV, …). My total burden has been around 25% for my income-generating years. There’s no capital gains tax in Switzerland BTW.

Year	Yearly expenses
2026 (so far)	CHF 40k
2025	CHF 70k
2024	CHF 46k
2023	CHF 37k
2022	CHF 39k

2024 expenses looked roughly like this (major categories):

• Rent: 10k or 900 per month (living with 2 flatmates).
• Groceries, take-away & var. household stuff: 6.5k
• Expensive coffee equipment (one-time) & related: 6k
• Health-related (insurance): 5.7k (3.9k)
• Charity: 3.5k
• Public transport: 2k
• Travel: 1.5k
• Furniture: 2k
• Sport stuff: 2k
• Clothes: 1.5k
• Var. leisure stuff (books, subscriptions): 1.5k
• Social stuff (gifts & parties): 1k

2025 saw a jump due to one-time surgery (12k), charity drive (5k), keyboard experimentation (4k), expensive macbook (3k). In 2026, I bought some nicer furniture (one-time purchase, I was replacing IKEA furniture I had since I moved in Switzerland)

Plans:

Immediately upon FIREing, I do intend to spend on some one-time experiences (travel to Asia/Africa), try living in my native country to see if people are nicer (will rent 2nd apartment), learn new skills (electronics, dancing, music).

I imagine that in some near-to-medium future housing costs will increase (living on my own, perhaps buying an apartment in Poland) and I’ll get a car as well. Moving back to Poland is a possibility.

Background and other details:

• Polish national. Raised & studied in Poland.
• Single, no dependents.
• Worked in IT for 11 years earning CHF 200k–300k/y.
• Counting on the 4% rule on average (so, CHF 132k/y) since I expect to have a solid cushion even if my expenses increase (paying full rent, car etc.).

Burner account for obvious reasons. 

Married, non-working wife. Kids grew up and left home - not a factor, we’re leaning towards “die with zero” rather than generational wealth anyway. Lived in CH for all our adult life. Citizenship, language, friends, etc.

2.5M liquid assets, mostly ETFs. Not exactly “VT & chill”, but close - with perhaps just a bit too much US/tech exposure. A six-digit chunk in cash, trying to at least partially follow the “keep your age % in bonds” mantra while CH bonds are useless.

About 500k in pillar 2. There was more, but it went towards the house as WEF. Not intending to pay that back. Decent house in low-tax canton, worth 2M+. 1M mortgage in few fixed 1%-1.5% chunks maturing over next 10 years.

Fully remote and relatively low-stress job, 200-300k/year net savings. But also a dead end, largely driven by tenure and company/domain-specific expertise. Plus a field impacted by outsourcing / layoffs / AI. Once I’m out, I’m likely unemployable.

Annual fixed spending a bit above 100k, stable and tracked for years. Happy, boring, safe life. We don’t care about exotic travel, eating out, fancy cars, etc. Basically just enjoying our time locally with simple things like nature, hiking, driving around CH. I do have some personal extravaganzas on top of that 🙂, but those will be trivially cut when high income ends I’m aware of all the FIRE living cost technicalities. Wealth tax, self-retired AHV, Eigenmietwert going away, inflation, health costs growing - I’ve beaten all these to death. All of this factored in the above spending number.

So, while the job is fine, I’m still longing to pulling the plug. Every time I take vacation, I wish it was longer. Much longer. Ideally, forever. I have so many plans what I’d do when this happens. But then, whenever I tried assessing my FIRE situation, be it various public calculators, ChatGPT or my own spreadsheets, the outcome was always: “you’re almost there, but, with your savings rate… just one more year!”.

How much is enough?

Hi everyone

Throw-away account, M40, married with joint finances and 2 kids so far, 3 and 5.

I plan to leave my job in the next months to become a stay-at-home dad. My wife would likely follow a bit later. The original FIRE plan was higher numbers, but I look for feedback how manageable FIRE is already now.

Joint assets

• 2 mCHF in stocks, VT-style
• 1 mCHF in pillar 2
• Own residence in Zurich region, built in 2020
• -1.2 mCHF SARON mortgage with 0.5% interest

Planned Budget: 100 tCHF per year

• Expenses: 84 tCHF per year (Interest and utilities 1’333 / Food and household 1’333 / Health insurance: 1’333 / Hobbies, vacations 1’000 / Savings for bigger expenses 1’000 / Child-care post-FIRE 1’000 = 7'000 average per month
• Taxes and AHV/OASI: 15 tCHF
• Includes some buffer and could be trimmed if necessary

In my simple view I'm not studying withdrawal rates, but look at both early and regular retirement period: 2 mCHF in stocks cover the planned expenses until 65. By then, pillar 2 is unlocked, along with pillar 1 pension, maybe 45 kCHF in today’s money.

Higher mortgage rates look like a risk. Pension money could be used to pay that off, but that would leave a big hole in the invested assets. I’m yet undecided how to invest that money once it’s moved to vested benefit accounts.

Another uncertainty are future costs for older kids and renovations on the house. If there are good enough market returns, there is no issue. And the mortgage could be increased, if the bank cooperates.

Am I too naïve about making it work? Some run many simulations or write elaborate withdrawal strategies. I did think these through, but my plan is more pragmatic: Build up a bigger cash buffer until both salaries are gone, then withdraw from the portfolio as needed and enjoy life.

The backup plan if money becomes an issue in the next years would be return to work and in old age selling the house and move to a lower-cost region are options. By then, the kids are grown up and the house too big.

Did someone here FIRE on similar terms? Is it too optimistic? I would be more comfortable with more assets, but I don't want to miss out the year's before school and work is exhausting.

Thankful for any feedback.

Where can I keep ETFs after FIREing? Ideally, low custody fees, and low fees when I sell something. It should also be Swiss. As a non Swiss solution, I am already aware of Interactive Brokers.

Article is from August last year, but I couldn't find it with search in this sub. In German.