Deductibility of wealth management costs, Vermögensverwaltungskosten

Taxes
1

Hi everyone

I have a question regarding the deductibility of wealth management costs in Switzerland.

So far, in the Canton of Zurich, I have been applying the standard lump-sum deduction of 3‰ for wealth management costs on my entire assets (including bank accounts as well as securities held with brokers like Saxo and IBKR).

However, I recently received a clarification/decision from the Cantonal Tax Office of Zurich stating that bank balances (cash) are no longer considered eligible for this deduction, and that the 3‰ applies only to securities managed by third parties (excluding bank accounts and similar assets).

Reference (Zurich tax guideline):
https://www.zh.ch/de/steuern-finanzen/steuern/treuhaender/steuerbuch/steuerbuch-definition/zstb-30-1.html

From what I understand, this seems to reflect a broader principle that wealth management costs are tied specifically to managed securities portfolios, not to cash holdings.

My question:
Is this interpretation applied consistently across other cantons as well (e.g. Zug), or are there differences in practice?

Would be very interested to hear how others are handling this.

Thanks a lot!

Dankeschön :wink:

2

No, e.g., in VD it is applied automatically and takes the cash positions too.

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3

There’s lots of cantonal difference, I don’t even think the pauschal approach is very common.

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4

To clarify, third party custody is sufficient, no active management or similar is required. I.e., it applies to securities held at brokers, just not cash.

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5

Also in ZH is automatically calculated. You can either accept that or add the actual costs.

6

What I did was the third option: I re-calculated the pauschal myself and deducted that. The reason being, the automatic calculation uses the taxable value of the securities and this means that it basically does not deduct direct residential funds, so I forcefully put them back in

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