Direkte Bundessteuer als Schulden abziehen... and other debts

Taxes
1

Hey there

First year really looking to minimize my taxes as much as possible. This site has lots of information: Steuerabzüge: So sparst du mit den besten Abzügen und Pauschalen bei den Steuern - Smolio.

I’m wondering about the tipp “Direkte Bundessteuer als Schulden abziehen”: In march 2021 I got a bill from the “Kantonales Steueramt” titled “Direkte Bundessteuer 2020”. They’re saying that I should declare that bill as debt. Is that right?

Also there’s other debts: Can I declare the outstanding “debt” that I had on my credit card at the end of the year that I didn’t yet pay? Can I even declare the internet bill I had at the end of the year?

I had to chuckle at this: “Einige Kantone (z.B. Bern) akzeptieren bei Glutenunverträglichkeit eine Zöliakie-Pauschale von 2’500 Franken ohne Kostennachweis.” Not gonna try it, but I wonder if they would want you to prove it.

3

Yes, I did that once and they accepted it. Also the bundestax should work and I suppose any other outstanding tax that you (guess) owe to the tax office (like the ~30K extra bill I got now for 2018, I suppose I could have put it down as debt in 2019 and 2020 - not sure about deducting the interests from the income though).

4

What about this: “Bonus-Tip: in den meisten Kantonen darfst du die am Ende des Steuerjahrs geschuldeten, aber noch nicht bezahlten Steuern ebenfalls als Schulden abziehen.”

If I understand this correctly, since I got my 2019 tax in mid 2020, I can add the 2019 tax to my 2020 tax return as debt. Is that right?

Or do they mean the 2020 tax?

5

Kantonal tax is typically owed in the fall of the same year. Federal tax on the next year, so I think it only works for federal tax or if you have a negative balance (and only for that part) for the canton+city.

6

I wish I could deduct a 30k federal tax bill. This corresponds to a taxable income of >300k, not bad.

7

You can only deduct it from your taxable wealth and not from your taxable income, so the impact might be minimal.

1 Like