Hello everyone,
Last year, I worked as a full remote employee from my home in Zurich for a Swiss company located in another canton. I was wondering if I could deduct part of the rent, internet costs, and the furniture I bought for my home office.
Did anyone experience a similar situation? If so, in your tax declaration, which deductions are you proposing regarding work-related expenses?
Privates Arbeitszimmer bzw. Home-Office ist nur abzugsfähig, sofern dies jährlich vom Arbeitgeber bestätigt wird und beim Arbeitgeber kein Arbeitsplatz zur Verfügung steht. Weiter muss zu Hause ein vollständig eingerichtetes Arbeitszimmer zur Verfügung stehen.
See this pdf for the calculation:
(source of this pdf: schmitt-treuhand.ch)
Thanks for this document, @markus654!
Do you confirm that the room used for the home office must be only used for work (i.e, we can’t deduct the room if we also sleep there)?
It has to be a separate room, that’s more or less only used as office, as far as I know.
Hello, could someone confirm which amount can be deducted for home office?
I live in 2.5 apartment. According to the ZH tax Instruction from the Finance Directorate regarding the determination of the imputed rental value in the event of actual underuse | Canton of Zurich (zh.ch) I can deduct 1/3 of rent cost. (because it’s [rent cost] * (1 + 1)/(2 +1), according to the formula).
It’s not clear to me what is the [rent const], just rent or rent + utility bills (in German “nebenkosten”).
Also, I wonder if it’s worth the hassle, if any. I’ve been living all my life in studio, but since I started a 100% remote work I moved to 2.5 to have one room dedicated for the office. However, a lot of people deem a dedicated bedroom a must-have. When they heard that I live in a studio, it was always an immediate “oh dear, you have to move to a proper flat”. Therefore, I’m afraid that the tax office could be also particularly creepy seeing such deduction claimed in 2.5 apartment. I’ve overheard some anecdotes…
The forfeit professional costs are capped at 4k. I’d like to calculate what’s the difference between the actual costs deduction versus forfeit.
if I can claim only the net rent, then it’d be 18k * 1/3 = 6k, if the net+bills then ~6.7k
Interesting point. Have you tried to call the tax office on the possibility to deduct the rent costs? I was not able to receive an answer on the formula to apply, in case.
I haven’t called them and have no time to manage it this week. I’m going to submit calculation based on the total: rent + bills. Worst case they’ll correct that.
In ZH it’s clearly stated, the formula to deduct a room for home office, is the same as for declaring underuse.
I am also interested.
Once the calculation is done, where should the amount be added in the tax declaration?