Declaring Foreign Self-Employment Income – Tax and AHV Clarification Needed

Taxes
1

Dear all,

This year, I carried out some self-employment work in the EU, mainly teaching-related activities. I received payment for this work, but so far, I have not paid any taxes on the income, nor have I made any AHV contributions yet.

I am planning to declare this income as self-employment (side job) in my Swiss tax return. I have already submitted the relevant forms to register for AHV contributions, but I haven’t received any information on how much I need to pay or by when yet.

Therefore I am wondering what should I add in my tax declaration:

  • Should I declare the full gross amount I earned, even though I haven’t paid any AHV or other contributions yet?
  • Or should I estimate and deduct the expected AHV contributions and only declare the net amount?

Any guidance on how to correctly report this income in my tax declaration would be greatly appreciated.

2

You can’t deduct AHV contributions that haven’t been invoiced yet, as far as I know. I think it’s correct to declare the gross amount now and deduct the AHV contributions in the tax year where you actually pay them.

However, if the income was really earned this year (2025), you will only have to declare it next year in your tax declaration for 2025. And as you’ve already submitted your AHV registration, I would expect you to still get a provisional AHV invoice this year. So, chances seem high that you can deduct your AHV contributions in the same tax declaration where you also declare the income.

¹ If I remember correctly, on the registration form you have to specify an estimated income for the first year, in which case the provisional invoice should be based on that estimate.

3

It works like this:

  • If you can prove that you conduct business activities at your own commercial risk AND you have more than one customer, then you should be able to register as self-employed at the social security office. You would then be billed for OASI contributions on the income earned through your self-employment.
  • If you are not registered as self-employed at the social security office, and the salary you receive for your part-time work from one company exceeds the OASI-exemption threshold (CHF 2500 per year), then your employer is responsible to ensure that the OASI contributions are paid. That is the case when the employers are in an EU countries (because of bilateral social security agreements). Your EU employer would have to cover the employer share of the contributions. If the employer is outside the EU, then you would have to register that employment as anobag and pay the full OASI contributions yourself.
  • If the salary you receive from one employer is less than 2500 francs per year, then you don’t need to pay OASI contributions on that money. But you do still need to declare it as side income in your tax declarations.