Saxer tips BS

Saxer tips for your tax return. Summary of important points.

Important:

Please notify us of any changes which took place in 2023, such as:

• Birth of any children (name, date of birth), or children which are newly registered with you
• If children are no longer in education (as of December 31, 2023)
• Changes in marital status
• Gifts/legacies (when, from whom/to whom, how much?)
• Changes in employment status (e.g. change from 60% working hours to full-time on July 1, 2023)
• Property sold or bought in Switzerland or abroad

Here is the checklist of documents required for your tax return (these are guidelines and do not claim to be exhaustive)

Employed persons:

• Yearly salary statements, attestations of unemployment benefit, daily allowance payments received, signed income statement in the case of self-employment
• Gaps in employment: Confirmation that you were not working between such and such  date and did not earn any income during this period
• Specific occupational expenses (advanced training, membership, etc.)
• Documentary evidence of any voluntary contributions payments into the pension funds
• Certificate confirming your contributions to third pillar pension
• Possible confirmation from your employer regarding use of car (see inside)
• Documentary evidence of cost of third-party childcare (day care centre, after-school day care centre, etc.) if both parents are working, disabled or in further education tax relief available for children up to 14 years old
• Taxes on earnings from gainful employment with simplified payment procedures (e.g. for cleaning ladies, etc.) have already been paid. However, the gross salary must be indicated for information purposes. Please also send in 2023 statement.

Separated/divorced spouses:

• Details of maintenance contributions/alimony
• If you are a single with children we need to know if you lived together with a partner on December 31, 2023.

Documents

Debts

Debit interest 2023 paid to banks or private individuals can be deducted from income. If you currently have a consumer loan of any kind, call the lender and request a debit interest certificate for 2023. Default interest (on tax liabilities) also qualifies as debit interest.

Charitable donations (only for an institute in Switzerland)

Please send us deposit receipts, letters of thanks for 2023 or prepare a list of charitable donations yourself (minimum CHF 100.-).

Sickness expenses and disability-related costs

In 2023, sickness expenses borne by you yourself will be partially deductible (excluding health insurance premiums), if the amount exceeds 5% of your net income. To claim such expenses you can:

• request a statement from your health insurance provider showing expenses which you paid yourself or
• prepare your own list (list doctor’s bills, deducting contributions paid by your health insurance provider and enclose original bills)
• additional deductible items include: cost of dental treatment, glasses, orthopaedic insoles, etc. The additional deduction is only possible, if they not are cleared by your health insurance. Please enclose relevant bills.

Many attestations from health insurance providers show “uninsured expenses”.  These need to be backed up with documentary evidence. Otherwise, you risk that the tax office will not approve any deduction. Please enclose the relevant paperwork.

Disability-related costs

A big part of nursing home costs for persons in need of nursing care qualify as sickness expenses, or as disability-related expenses for cases classed as care level 2 or higher (based on the BESA scale). Please ask for a yearly statement.

Flat-rate deductions for recipients of care allowances for persons unable to look after themselves. Please enclose an up-to-date ruling from the compensation fund.

Property owners (in Switzerland as well as abroad)

• list of any rental income 2023 (rent excluding ancillary costs)
• mortgage interest 2023
• maintenance costs: send us all your original invoices (payment date 2023). We shall prepare a list of deductible (value-preserving) expenses (billed according to the amount of work involved) or
• send us a list you have prepared yourself. In this case, we shall copy your figures over to your tax return without checking them. We shall forward any questions from the tax office regarding these figures to you.
• for owner-occupied apartments: To enable us to determine whether you will benefit more from a flat-rate deduction or from a deduction of actual expenses incurred we need to see the annual statement from the condominium association for 2023.
• deduction for underuse: if you don’t use all rooms of your house/apartment we advise you.

Bills from the tax administration

If you enclose last year’s tax bills (incl. details of your assessment), we can check whether all deductions were accepted. If you have to pay significantly more than we predicted we recommend you to send us the demands as soon as you receive them so that we can get in touch with the tax administration. We hope you will understand that we have to charge for the work this entails. An objection can be done within 30 days from the invoice date. It has to be in written way if no mutual consent can be found with the tax authorities.

Reduce your tax bill

The very best legal way to cut down your tax bill is undoubtedly by paying into a Pillar 3a pension scheme. We will be happy to provide you with advice on the options available.

Please note

Our company has a very good reputation at the tax authorities. This is mainly because we do things properly. To ensure that we retain this good reputation we make a point of investigating anything that is not clear. We would therefore urge you to stay on the side of caution and send us too much paperwork rather than too little.

A few points on our own behalf

• Copies? – No thanks! It’s easier for us to make all the necessary copies ourselves.
• Please send us your documents and paperwork without staples or paperclips. This makes our work much easier. Thank you.
• On the tax form you will find the deadline of March 31, 2024. We will ask for all our customers for which we completed the tax return 2022 an extension of time limit (free of charge) until September 30, 2024. All other customers ask for a deadline extension with date September 30, 2024 yourself. We will ask for a second extension (fees CHF 40.–) from Oktober 1, 2024 until December 31, 2024 if we received the tax form 2023 September 30, 2024 the latest.
• Payments at the counter of the post office will cause charges. We would appreciate if you pay our invoice in cash or through a bank/post transfer. Thanks.
• Switzerland will collect data from January 1, 2017 on and exchange them with more than 100 countries.
• Since January 1, 2010, tax evaders have the chance to file a one-off voluntary disclosure of their affairs without being prosecuted and without incurring a fine. In previous years we have been able to assist numerous clients wishing to clear their conscience. Ask Pia Krummenacher or Claudia Schwarz to explain what you need to do.