Tax Declaration: list your deductions!

Taxes
111

Do you think that payments to websites providing online courses such as Coursera or Udemy can be deducted as “Development and training costs”/“Frais de perfectionement et de formation”?

In Vaud, under code 618 it says “Expenses incurred for recreation or out of self-interest are not deductible”/“Les frais engagés pour une activité de loisirs ou par pur intérêt personnel ne sont pas déductibles.”

Even if the courses you follow are not directly work related I would guess it souldn’t be too hard to bullshit something about the translational benefits of getting educated on a given subject.

112

Speaking from experience, their answer was something like “we can’t see how this course is related to your field of work, so we reject it”.

But you may try, you have nothing to lose.

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113

I have successfully deducted language courses, books and online training in the past.

If you work in IT, be specific about your training subject (if related). Best luck!

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114

Thanks for your responses, I will try it out.

This actually leads me to a second question. Generally speaking, which documents do you add to the declaration you produce via the tax software of your respective canton?

Granted I was still a student up until last year and thus my income was tiny, which could explain why they never bothered me, but I never added a single document to my tax declaration. I always thought that they would contact me in they required any proof.

If they really want a specific proof why not make it mandatory during the form filing? What’s you approach?

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115

There’s actually quite a few things where it’s mandatory (in particular for deductions: charitable donations, pillar2 buyin, pillar 3a), at least in ZH it probably won’t let you submit your filing online if you don’t attach the proof.

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116

I do it for Vaud but for the last two years I filled the form and despite having maxed my pillar 3a contribution and having bought some VTI through IB I was able to submit it without any proof so you for sure do not have any alert preventing you from sending. It’s only when reading this topic that I saw that people did add proofs directly in the declaration.

117

Does anybody know where/how to declare the “parked” (not invested) cash at Interactive Brokers (for Zurich)? Thanks in advance!

118

I declare it as another bank account.

BTW: this is the deductions thread.

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120

The UBS me package includes card fees and other fees that I don’t expect to be deductible. In the “Bescheinigung” for the end of last year, UBS explicitly mentioned “Abzugsfähige Kontospesen” of CHF 26.50 for me. That’s what I deducted. I.e. I don’t think the whole package fee is considered deductible but I don’t know how much the tax authorities would accept.

121

What canton?

In BS you can deduct at least part of the costs.

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122

I would also say that in many cantons the flat deduction for “wealth management fees” is already good, so it is better to just stay with it.

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123

At least in ZH, the 0.3% flat deduction of wealth management fees only applies to securities, not cash deposits, according to the Wegleitung and Steuerbuch Nr.30.1. I.e. this is independent of the possible deduction of bank account fees.

Für die Verwahrung und Verwaltung von Wertschriften (ohne Darlehen und Bankguthaben aller Art) sowie für das Erstellen des Steuerverzeichnisses durch Dritte können für sämtliche abzugsfähigen Kosten pauschal, d.h. ohne Nachweis der tatsächlichen Kosten, 3‰ des Steuerwerts der durch Dritte verwalteten Wertschriften des Privatvermögens, maximal jedoch Fr. 6’000 (entspricht einem Depotwert von Fr. 2’000’000), abgezogen werden.

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124

This is the ambiguity. If it is possible to deduct the safe fees, why not the account management fees? As long as it’s a flat fee, even if it includes credit cards, I would tend to deduct the whole package.

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125

An overview of deductions for direct federal taxes and taxes in Bern:

127

Disclaimer: I am not an expert.

I assume this should not be a problem. I would do the same in your case. Since you effectively had those costs to go to work and it’s the cheapest option for you, this should be fine. If you are paranoid I suggest you to use the Mehrfahrtenkarten, then scan and attach them.

128

Again no expert.

I think you can just deduct the yearly Abo-Kosten as a whole.
Of course if you deduct less, they won’t complain.

That is a question you can direct straight to the tax authorities, since it is very specific.

129

I normally bike but take the tram whenever the weather is too crappy. I successfully deduct the bike and the yearly above for the public transport.

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130

So you don’t need to provide proof of (yearly) subscription purchase for it?
Nice.

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132

Would that be cost of a GA or a local transport card?

134

I checked again, you can only deduct the effective costs for transportation between home and work. GA only if it is cheaper than the corresponding abo (basically the lower cost of two).

But you can deduct the abo and the bike if you pay for the full abo, otherwise you have to do the specific ticket.