Tax declarations are fun

Taxes
349

Great! I can’t test though.

Best would be to package that so it can be self-hosted.

Challenge to package it to make the install simple, maybe docker, but you would need two images I guess for back/front end and some compose deployment. So, quite touchy for non-geeks.

I find self hosting is the main advantage of the initial project, so you don’t have to share data with a third-party (data level) especially since you bear the entire responsibility of the setup with them.

More than saving the 50.-/yr…

Integration can be fun and efficient, long-term it can be a pain in the a**, where you’re on your own dealing with all other parties who don’t care at all about the global picture.

350

You can already install and run the software on your own machine, it is just that it is quite involved and probably beyond what most people will want to tolerate.

I want to ultimately find a way to package it so that people can install on their own system more easily. There’s a bit of development to be done before I get to that stage though. Most importantly making sure the numbers it generates are correct!

3 Likes
351

It is really nice to see the traction we are getting in this topic! This project lowers the barrier for many and thus we will get more feedback with real world data. Also very nice work on the IB export docs!

Some points to consider IMO:

  1. How do you make sure that data related feedback is getting to the OpenSteuerAuszug (OSA) GitHub issues tracker? I think such feedback would be very valuable.
  2. How does the data anonymization work? IMO this should be really done client side before transmitting to the server. Please document this in a transparent way. If not supported, we can also add an option to generate an eTax without user data included. I think that is supported by the eTax standard (but possibly not yet by OSA).
  3. Importing vtandchill_2025.xml fails:
    Tax report generation failed. Please check your XML file format.: Failed to initialize KurslisteExchangeRateProvider with directory data/kursliste: Kursliste data for tax year 2026 not found. Available years: 2024, 2025. Please ensure kursliste_2026.sqlite or kursliste_2026.xml exists in data/kursliste
  4. I think you should add a link to OSA GH repo (and possibly issue tracker) for transparency.

BTW, I have started a dedicate thread for OSA. Probably move all the discussion to that thread, and just leave your initial post here so that people are aware of this new tool? Also adding @j_from_b here.

1 Like
352

This is because the xml has an end date of 2026-01-01 instead of 2025-12-31.

353

22 posts were split to a new topic: Individual taxation [2026]

363

Thanks for the explanation!

Now back to the topic, anyone still waiting for their Lohnausweis to be able to click the button? :smiley:

364

No, but I was surprised to learn that in the canton of Neuchâtel, you have to have your tax returns completed by the end of February. And that’s despite the fact that so many documents are still missing at the end of February! ICTax isn’t that fast, after all.

365

Today I helped a friend doing his tax returns in Bern. As a Zurichois I was also surprised to learn that the deadline in Bern is March 15.

366

To be fair, it’s fine to submit before the data it is on ictax, the tax officer usually will wait for it before processing the return. (some fund only get data e.g. in July when the annual report is published)