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?
- Do distinguish between pauschale Steueranrechnung and zusätzlicher Steuerrückbehalt USA.
- Zusätzlicher Steuerrückbehalt USA would apply to the average Swiss person holding US securities with a Swiss broker
- it does not apply to US securities held in IBKR accounts
- the tax software often does not accept allow to simply enter investment funds or ETFs (such as VT) as eligible securities for refunds. Workaround: Enter as a “stock” (see Cortana above).
I did the same, and sent decl. in at end of March. Theoretically should be good enough. Let’s see if taxman “agrees” 
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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.