To give a short update to this post: I received mail from the Zurich tax agency today telling me that they’ll transfer me the amount requested in my DA1 directly to my bank account.
So it all worked out fine, and I’m actually pleasantly surprised by how quickly I heard back. Especially considering that it seems to take years to hear back about the standard tax returns. 
It’s my first year trying to fill-in the DA-1 form and navigate Zürich taxes. Spoiler alert: it’s not easy if you aren’t bilingual and tax logic isn’t your forte.
Anyway, I don’t understand the comments above as I was able to find VT in the ZH Privat Tax software.
Has it been fixed since last year? Am I looking at the wrong thing?
Yes it’s been fixed, ictax reports it as qualified now.
Frustratingly, in canton Lucerne’s tax software this is still an issue. In this particular software it also doesn’t help to uncheck the online-lookup, since it stores the values locally as well and automatically forces ETFs into the funds category.
Here’s the workaround (worked last year, for this year I guess I will know for sure only once the money is credited):
ETFs can now be added as ‘category C’ stocks with DA-1 input fields available. Unchecking the online-lookup is probably still necessary.
I am having the issue in Kt. Zug where the tax software doesn’t allow me to click the “DA-1” box (I also have shares in VT and have paid withholding tax).
I wrote to the Canton asking about this and received the following reply:
“Der Steuerrückbehalt USA kann nur geltend gemacht werden, wenn die Titel in der Schweiz deponiert sind.”
The thing is, I have made all these deposits from Switzerland. My Int. Brokers account is registered to my address in Switzerland and the base currency of my account is CHF. Can anyone cast any light on this?
Otherwise I’ll just go ahead as people said above and enter it manually into the system.
Thanks!
Mike
Same issue in AG. Got it solved by entering it as a stock.
Have you guys tried this approach? (had to do it for BS)
This year I am attempting a one-liner though - where all of the IBKR holdings are listed summarized with only 3 numbers - total worth at 31.12., total dividends, total dividends subject to WHT (DA-1).
I attached the full report from IBKR with it, we will see if they prefer this simplicity. 
Your broker is not swiss, so you can’t claim the extra withholding.
You need to declare the “DA-1 – Antrag auf Anrechnung ausländischer Quellensteuern für ausländische Dividenden und Zinsen” and not the “R-US 164 - Antrag auf Rückerstattung des zusätzlichen Steuerrückbehaltes USA”
Regardless of the cash / bank transfer “deposits” you made, your residence address and currency, the securities are not deposited with a Swiss broker or Swiss security depository.
This!
Many thanks everyone! Much appreciated!
I still, however, have the problem that I can’t even click DA-1 in the Zug tax software.
And the DA-1 form for Kt. Zug looks so much more complicated than the examples I find on other websites.
I’m thinking that for this year I may get a Steuerberater to help me out, and then in future years I’ll have a template for what to do and how to do it.
VT is really the only fund that I have that this applies to, so hopefully once I know how to do this properly, I’ll be set for the future.
Again, vielen Dank!!
If you are patient I could check out the program this weekend and see how it would work.
The problem is at least well-known (around here)
Won’t this be kind of expensive though? I mean, depending on your tax advisor’s fees (and volume of VT), you might have been better off with European ETFs?
While I have never applied for it personally (yet), it’s not that complex or hard, is it?
I did the same, and sent decl. in at end of March. Theoretically should be good enough. Let’s see if taxman “agrees”
That would be very much appreciated! Thank you!
Yes, you’re probably right, though I have no head for these sorts of things or for financial terminology, and I don’t have a ton of time to spend researching (two kids in nappies are keeping me busy at home). I realise now I was confusing the two things you put in your first bullet point - hence the reply from the tax guy from the canton.
Your reply has thrown up a question in my head though - if I’m going to be investing primarily in VT, should I be doing so through a Swiss broker? (though I’m not Swiss) Would I make any tax savings by using a Swiss broker rather than IB? And would these cancel out the cost of using IB?
If anything, more tax (Zusätzlicher Steuerrückbehalt) will be withheld.
And then you may be eligible for a refund of that amount that you paid more.
You’d only be eligible for refund of additional tax that you wouldn’t be withheld in the first place otherwise.
Is the DA-1 a federal form, or is it a cantonal one? My kanton only speaks German and I don’t so I’d rather fill the fédéral DA-1 in French than the kanton’s one in German if they’ll accept it all the same. Does anyone know if that would work?
It’s handled by the cantonal authorities so I doubt they’ll accept a random form.
Generally agree. I wouldn’t exactly call the publicly available federal forms “random” though.
In this case, I am not quite getting the explanation on the ESTV web site either. They provide sample forms only - but with explanations how to electronically complete them on your PC?
Personally, I think the DA-1 form isn’t much harder to comprehend and complete than the cantonal forms on which you have to list your wealth and securities anyway (“Wertschriftenverzeichnis”). I’d probably use the federal form (or bilingually provided ones in some cantons) for reference and complete my canton’s ones. They all should be rather similar in actual wording / content anyway.
