Can we deduct:
- House insurance?
- Bank fees? Or only asset mgmt fees?
Zürich kanton.
Thanks!
1 Like
If you are the owner of the property, you can deduct house insurance, it’s part of the maintenance costs → https://www.ubs.com/ch/en/private/mortgages/information/magazine/2016/tax-deductions-for-homeowners.html
Bank fees can’t be deducted, only asset management fees → Practice change regarding the deductibility of asset management costs from Zurich tax authorities - Tax and Legal blog.
2 Likes
Yes, I successfully deduct both the insurance for the building and the one for the interior/stuff inside.
1 Like
In SZ you need to upload some form of document to prove the 3% wealth costs otherwise you can’t end your tax declaration in the online version that’s why I took it out. Will try to do it anway next year and just upload my IBKR report with all my ETFs I guess.
Just checked the tax information document of SZ and this was why it requested me to upload some documents to prove my wrongly entered 3%, FML. 3‰ it is thanks for the info 
Not total wealth. You can’t add your bank account to that.
2 Likes
Exactly, only the invested amount (this excludes for instance cash positions in your broker, like leftover from buying).
At least accountant told me that.
2 Likes
Working on my 2021 tax declaration (ZH).
I am adding Bundessteuer for 2020 and 2021 as additional debt, which lower a bit my wealth. I remember reading about it on 20min once and found it a great idea. I added them as if they were two mortgages. Anybody can confirm that I am putting them at the right place?
I also paid some income taxes to a EU country where I have a rental property. I should be able to deduct these taxes because there is a treaty with Switzerland. But where is the right place? In the deductions relative to the property, i.e., together with the renovation costs?
I also have an issue with IB: when I try to create report which should include interests accrued over cash (e.g., from USD), all fields are correctly reported, except for the interests. I’ll call them tomorrow, but I wonder if anybody else noticed the same glitch/bug.
4 Likes
I often answer questions about IB reports, but in this case I don’t understand what you mean.
1 Like
You can’t deduct this because the income is not taxable here. The principle is the foreign income is taxed in its location of the property (but is used to determine the tax rate)
4 Likes
But then renovation costs, even if abroad, can be deducted from the income, right?
Yes. You are deducting it on the real estate section. The net income/costs will be linked to the first page (income statement).
2 Likes
No they cannot be deducted from your Swiss taxable income
But you should include them in your tax return since they will reduce the rate at which your Swiss income is taxed
1 Like
Pretty sure my taxable income was reduced when I deducted such renovation costs abroad in the past (though they did not accept 100% of what I declared).
2 Likes
I have a property abroad; this is how it has worked for me (ZH):
- For all houses and appartments (in CH or aborad), there has to be an income. This is either the actual rental income, or Eigenmietwert.
- From this income, the costs are substracted (these can contain renovations).
- What remains, is the net income of the property.
- Note: I don’t know, whether this can be negative.
- If the property is abroad:
- The net income of from the property is counted towards the income used to determine the tax rate (“Satzbestimmendes Einkommen”).
- The net income is not counted towards the taxable income (“Steuerbares Einkommen”), as this income is taxed abroad.
3 Likes
In my (ZH) experience:
- the net income CAN be negative
- even if the property is abroad the negative income is deducted from your taxable income (both for federal and Kanton/gemeinde). You can try it yourself by adding a test large renovation cost when filling your tax return.
- the tax office might request more info about the required deductions, but in my case, given that the renovations costs amounted to 80% of the purchase price, they simply offered to deduct only half of the costs, assuming it could not just be “value maintaining” renovations
My experience in Geneva is the same as @the_p outlines
My taxes go down if I add a large overseas property expense because a lower tax rate is applied to my taxable income
Here is the guidance from the canton. I assume the same principle should apply to all cantons.
Deepl translation:
" If your property is located:
-in the Canton of Geneva: it is taxed in the same way as your other assets and income, and it is also subject to the additional real estate tax;
-in another canton: its taxable value and its income are used to determine your tax rate for cantonal and municipal taxes (ICC), and its income is added to your taxable income for direct federal tax (IFD) if you are domiciled in Geneva;
-abroad: it is not taxed in Geneva, but its taxable value and income are used to determine your tax rate.
Translated with DeepL Translate: The world's most accurate translator (free version)"
I was just finishing tax declarations for us in ZH and my mother in BE. Both are homeowners in a condominium.
I don’t know if this is common knowledge, but you can deduct your Payments into the Renovation fund of your home ownership association in certain cantons, as long as the money is used for maintenance and not increasing value. As the sum can reach the low 4 figures, it’s worth looking into.
Keywords for search:
- DE - Einlagen in den Erneuerungsfonds
- FR - Apports/Versements/Contributions au fonds de rénovation de la PPE
4 Likes
Hi,
I have a question regarding deductions for transport. I exclusively ride by bicycle to work (it’s ~15 km). So far I was deducting only 700 pauschal for bicycles. I’ve seen it is possible to deduct bicycle + ZVV yearly abo.
Now my question - is it legal to deduct both, gray area or just plain illegal? 
In case of audit I won’t be able to show ZVV abo.
Only deduct what you actually use.
No ZVV abo, no ZVV abo reduction.
That’s how self-declaration works.
1 Like