Tax deduction on donation to associations

Omaha · July 31, 2019, 1:24pm

Hi all,

I’m a little bit confused about how the tax deduction works when we give money to an association.
It’s not clear for me on ch.ch website.
What is correct ?

The full amount given is tax deducted

I give CHF300 to WWF, I needed to pay 10k as taxes.
New tax is 10000 - 300 = 9700

The amount given is deduced from the total annual income taxable (like for 3rd pillar)

I give CHF300 to WWF
My new taxable revenue is : annual income - 300CHF

Thanks!

Gesk · July 31, 2019, 1:34pm

I think it is the second option.

nabalzbhf · July 31, 2019, 1:34pm

Unlike France, the amount is deducted from income (as if you never earned it). IIRC there’s a limit of 20% of your income though.

weirded · July 31, 2019, 8:32pm

Yes, it’s the second one. Donations are treated like expenses and reduce your taxable income.

Double_A · August 1, 2019, 9:02pm

The first one wouldn’t make much sense, since it would mean that people could donate their due taxes instead of actually paying them.

Grog · August 2, 2019, 3:34pm

I would be more than happy to have the choice either to pay taxes or to donate the same amount to a charitable organization unfortunately not possible

nabalzbhf · August 2, 2019, 9:42pm

FYI that’s how it works in some country (but usually you only get a percentage of the donation as a tax credit, e.g. 60%).

Compared to the swiss way, it decouple the deduction from the marginal tax rate (and makes the tax break more impactful for lower income people with low marginal tax rate).

dbu · March 25, 2021, 9:55pm

Almost done with my taxes for 2020, but missing this part on donations.
I cannot really find an item relating to “Spenden”.
Anything from here, or is there a special category/way to do it? (using BS software)

Edit: Ah, (Gemeinnützige) Zuwendungen it is.