Help to understand GA travel card payment (from employer) in tax returns

Taxes
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Dear All,

I am creating a new post as I thought it would be easy for people to look/search for this topic later.

I am filing taxes for the first time and I would to ask if I am filing correctly the data about GA travelcard costs which is part of our annual compensation package. Here are the details:

GA travel card subscription (CHF 5670) is provided by my employer and they have informed us with the following note:

According to art. 7 let. f RAVS and art. 9.2 RAVS, when an employer supports the private travel of its employees: Home - Work , the amount is an integrated part of the salary used to calculate social security contributions.

So, social contributions and taxes will be calculated on the Gross salary + 472.50 CHF* (the monthly cost of your GA: Cost of the GA – 10 % / 12).

  1. Our annual salary certificate has the following information:

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i.e.

  • “F” field is not checked
  • For section “15”, there is a note *voir feuille additionnelle/see additional page. This additional page has the text in the red box where the GA card cost is mentioned.
  • In the salary certificate I see that the Bruttolohn / Gross total (and hence Nettolohn/Salaire brut/Net salary) includes this 5670 CHF contributions for GA.

In the tax declaration we have to fill in the following information:

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  • Considering my case above, the field “15.” in the salary certificate point to the additional page showing CHF 5670 of GA. But this CHF 5670 amount is already reflected in field “11.” i.e. net salary. So I assume I do not need to put again 5670 CHF in Autres cotisations contractuelles des salaries/Other contractual employee contributions field. Right?

  • Even though GA cost is part of my salary, the field “F” for “transport gratuit” is not checked. So I guess I have to answer “Non” for the same in the tax declaration? (I thought it should have been mentioned as “free transport” in my salary certificate).

  • My employer is paying for the GA cost as part of the salary. So I guess I should not report anything in the “Frais de transport/Transportation costs”. Right?

Thank you very much in advance! By reading discussions here, trying to acquire some mustachias skills and file taxes myself this year :slight_smile: !

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For what you report in your taxes, you probably don’t have to care much, just copy the net salary into the tax form.

Since they didn’t check the “free” transportation box, it looks like they consider the GA to be some “benefit” to you from your company rather than covering your commute.

I’d say you can still deduct your transportation cost from your income (anyway the tax office will fix it if they disagree).

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Interesting. Do you have an option to take money instead of GA?

So your employer decided to include GA as a part of the compensation. I think it is already included in the net income, so you don’t have to add it again. Fill number 11 as indicated in the certificate. Field 15 and further just explain what is this extra benefit for informational purposes.

Field F is not marked because your employer doesn’t organize transportation for you. That would be for example a factory bus picking up workers in the morning. You are paying for your transportation to SBB.

Now it is getting interesting. As they had included your GA in your taxable income, you should be able to deduct transportation costs. Your situation is equivalent to the situation of someone using part of the salary to buy GA. In this case one can deduct transportation costs, so you also can. I suggest to go with the automatically calculated amount for your work - home distance and don’t try to deduct more.

They didn’t give it to you for free, they redirected part of your salary to GA. Depending on your position, you can even make a fuss about it, because maybe you don’t want to buy 1 class GA with your salary, but use it for something else!

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That’s correct. The net income under “11” includes your AG.

Correct. It means you can deduct the commute costs from home to work (lump sum or effective depending).

“F” shall not be checked when the AG is paid to the employee without business purposes (source: Guide
d’établissement du certificat de salaire et de I’attestation de rentes)

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Last but not least, the deduction for transportation is capped at CHF 3’000 at federal level. Therefore, you won’t be able to fully cancel this additional income by a tax deduction. You’ll pay income taxes on CHF 2’670 (or more if you don’t reach the max). The same applies at cantonal and communal level if your deduction is below CHF 5’670.

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Some employer try to gross out the benefits they give for this reason (so that it’s more or less tax neutral).

(They give extra money to cover for the extra tax)

But then you’ll still have people to complain that what is being added is not exact and that it still costs them some money… :smiley:

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Well some employers just compensate for the local city transport and not the GA.
I find it a good move to compensate the tax burden. My employer don’t do it.
It is also a ecological incentive as it also push people to use public transport if they can.

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First of all, thank you very much @nabalzbhf , @Dr.PI, @Guillaume_GVA for detailed responses! I think I have necessary information to answer this part in tax returns with bit more confidence now! :slight_smile:

Let me answer/clarify some of the questions:

Since they didn’t check the “free” transportation box, it looks like they consider the GA to be some “benefit” to you from your company rather than covering your commute.

Our company has two offices. In order to work at different office, the company is providing GA subscription as “additional compensation” components. So yes, it’s some “additional benefit”.

Do you have an option to take money instead of GA?

Not really.GA subscription is included as additional compensation component (to facilitate commute at different office). It can’t be converted to money.

I think it is already included in the net income, so you don’t have to add it again.

That’s correct. I checked the salary certificate and this 5670 CHF is also mentioned under section 2.3 Gehaltsnebenleistungen/Prestations salariales accessoires/Fringe benefits and added into Salaire brut total / Rente - Gross salary and Salaire net / Net salary.

Your situation is equivalent to the situation of someone using part of the salary to buy GA.
They didn’t give it to you for free, they redirected part of your salary to GA.

From my understanding of our compensation package, that’s correct!

because maybe you don’t want to buy 1 class GA with your salary, but use it for something else!

that’s true. But this was special situation in our company where this arrangement was explicit and we were informed (but without much choice :slight_smile: ). So I would say I don’t have anything to complaint on this part.

In this case one can deduct transportation costs, so you also can. I suggest to go with the automatically calculated amount for your work - home distance and don’t try to deduct more.

It means you can deduct the commute costs from home to work (lump sum or effective depending).

Thanks a ton! I will do that as you suggested.

By the way, I am cross checking 2021 taxes filed by my CA. I had the exact same situation as descried above: the F box for Transport gratuit entre le domicile et le lieu de travail/
Free transport between living place and work place is unchecked in salary certificate 5670 CHF mentioned as GA costs. In the tax returns submitted last year, I see that my CA has checked Transport gratuit (case F) checkbox and didn’t have asked for any transportation costs:

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I guess he misunderstood something? (/ didn’t look at this aspect in detail?).

Last year I just send all necessary documents to CA. He didn’t ask any additional clarifications. Until today, I didn’t really try to crosscheck all numbers (due to lack of knowledge/information) and thought everything is taken care correctly. (If this was mistake, I guess I should have checked this last year itself more carefully).