Imputed Rental Value - Ukraine Apartment

Taxes
1

Hello everyone,

I’m a taxpayer in Canton Schwyz (SZ) and own an unrented apartment in Ukraine. Due to the war, the property is currently unused.

My questions regarding the Imputed Rental Value (Eigenmietwert) are:

  1. Is 0 CHF Acceptable?

    • Can I declare 0 CHF for the Eigenmietwert because the property is unusable due to the war (it is not in occupied territory)? Is this accepted practice?

  2. What is the Minimum Safe Percentage?

    • If a value is required, what is the absolute minimum percentage of the purchase price/Tax Value (Steuerwert) that tax authorities typically accepts as a pro-forma Eigenmietwert proxy for foreign property? (e.g., 3.5% or less?)
2

Is it worth spending much time on that?

Maybe just ask the tax office what you should put (or let them decide, you can probably put a comment when you declare the apartment)

It only impacts the tax rate and I would be surprised if it would move the needle significantly esp. in a low tax canton (we’re probably talking about a few thousands CHF max of rent right?)

(Like 100 CHF extra to pay if you declare 1k of foreign rent on 100k overall income, 50 CHF if you have 200k of overall income, the higher your income the less it will matter)

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3

My naive and tired mind thinks: the higher the income, the more a change to the tax rate would amplify the amount of tax due.

For the OP: I assume war is a good reason to put 0. I’d just do that, add a comment, and then see what they say.

4

No because higher local income will reduce the chances of changing the effective tax rate due to foreign income.

5

That’s due to progressiveness of income tax. Once you reach top marginal tax rate, one extra k will have less impact on the effective rate.

It’s somewhat intuitive, the slope of the effective rate becomes flatter and flatter as the curve slowly trends towards the max tax rate.

6

Declare CHF 0 in both and add in the comment section that it has no rental value nor market value for the time being due to the war. Add the purchase price for sake of transparency in the comment, since this is how they assess the tax value. If they disagree they will say something and you can manage based on their answer (accepting or opposing).

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7

Eigenmietwert = 0 was approved for me during Covid when holiday home was inaccessible