The tax office only allows to deduct costs for children’s activities that count as child care, i.e., someone keeps your kids busy while you work. When planning what they should do next semester/year: how do I pick something that is likely going to be tax-deductible?
What kind of options are you looking at?
In Zurich, it’s defined in German as "insbesondere Taggelder für private und öffentliche Organisationen, welche sich der Kinderbetreuung annehmen (Kinderkrippen, Kindergärten u.dgl.). Als Kinderdrittbetreuungskosten gelten auch Honorare an Personen, welche die Betreuung von Kindern beruflich oder nebenberuflich ausüben (sog. Tagesmütter usw.).
Es können nur diejenigen Kosten geltend gemacht werden, die ausschliesslich für die Betreuung der Kinder während der tatsächlichen Arbeits- oder Ausbildungszeit […] anfallen"
So that covers explicitly the classical options Krippe, Hort or professional care at home up to an age of 14. If your nanny also does chores like cleaning, this part would have to be excluded. Family or friends don’t count, although I’m not sure they don’t if they’d do it professionally and get paid.
Sport club doesn’t count, either, neither should some holiday camp, but maybe even here you could argue about part of it.
I vaguely remember reading years ago that other places argue that if for example day-care at school also includes lunch, you’d have to exclude that part. I had no hassle to deduct full cost, so I’d double-check based on where you live.
Technically, I guess if I’d send my kids to child-care on a day off, I’d have to exclude that day from the deductions?
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I guess when applying for childcare you would have to fill a form asking for working days of parents. So it’s questionable if you would get it in the first place.
Furthermore you can always argue that you need this time for studies, applying for jobs (relevant for unemployed) etc.
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How come? Especially full day camps that allow parents to navigate the 13ish weeks of school/hort holidays should definitely count, no?
Don’t remember every doing that. They would ask which days you want child-care. And once in a while we’d ask if an extra day is possible, for whatever reason. I guess they can’t be bothered to check. Probably different if you work 20% but declare 80% (4 days) level of child-care.
I mentioned that partly out of curiosity, but to suggest some places handle it more or less strict.
That’s the part I’m not sure about, for exactly those reasons. Maybe they go with it, or at least accept some split of total cost that separates child-care from entertainment, food, accommodation etc. Even the child-care part could be split, as full-day wouldn’t be your work time, yet is included in the cost.
I bet there are some court rulings about just that out there 
For sport clubs or other activities in general, I guess the assumption is the kids go there for fun and the purpose of the club is to do sport, not child-care. Even if you could work some during training.
Beispiel für steuerlich nicht abziehbare Kosten
Allgemeine Lebenshaltungskosten: Ausgaben für Verpflegung, Unterkunft, Bekleidung, Freizeitgestaltung etc. sowie Schulgelder und Ähnliches zählen zu den privaten Lebenshaltungskosten der Kinder im engeren Sinn und können steuerlich nicht in Abzug gebracht werden. Betreuungskosten, die solche Lebenshaltungskosten mitenthalten, sind um den Betrag dieser Lebenshaltungskosten zu kürzen.
So you can’t claim the full costs of the summer camp. You reduce to the time you were working (33%?) and then further deduct all costs of life and leisure costs. You can try to claim that reduced amount. But it seems clear you can’t claim the full summer camp costs.
Here’s the quoted BBI: Botschaft zum Bundesgesetz über die steuerliche Entlastung von Familien mit Kindern
Page 4766 (page 38 in the PDF)
Abzugsfähig sind nur die effektiv nachgewiesenen Kosten für die Drittbetreuung.
Darunter sind nur die Kosten zu verstehen, die durch die reine Betreuungsarbeit
entstanden sind. Fallen im Rahmen der Drittbetreuung auch Kosten für die Verpfle-
gung oder für anderen Unterhalt der Kinder an, so sind diese als Lebenshaltungskos-
ten zu qualifizieren und können nicht in Abzug gebracht werden. Solche Kosten
würden auch entstehen, wenn die Kinder nicht durch Dritte betreut würden.
So, for a summer camp, you have to ask yourself: If, instead of the camp supervisor, you’d do this with your child yourself, what costs would you incur in that case? Like food, lodging, clothing, transport, tickets, etc. This is the part that you can’t deduct. You have to estimate how much of the camp costs go as compensation to the camp staff during 8 hours per day to supervise your child.
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“Day camps” where children come in the morning and leave in the evening while parents are working, should be acceptable as deductible childcare costs, as there primary goal is to, well, take care of children while parents are working
“Sport camp” or similar, when, for example, a child goes a whole week somewhere in the countryside or mountains to play football or climb mountains or ride ponies, most probably won’t be accepted as deductible costs, because it is primarily an entertainment.
Sounds like only boring camps can be deducted 
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So complicated, tedious and unnecessary, so many hours must be wasted by tax officers controlling these. Just get rid of these benefits and lower tax 
I think you miss the point. It’s not a benefit, it’s about tax-deductions of work-related expenses.
Which is why day-care is accepted as deduction to allow parents (and particularly mothers) to work (and pay taxes), whereas a vacation trip to the pony farm isn’t.
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But assuming the mother is able to work thanks to the kids being taken care of, it shouldn’t matter what type of trip the child gets to do.
Fair enough, I picked a black and white example in response to tokzoo.
I understand there’s a grey zone in between, which I guess was part of your initial question, which is very valid. Looking at the clarifications from various tax offices quoted above, that might indeed make things complicated for both you and the tax office.
I assume it’s fringe cases. I won’t consider holiday camps for some time, but guess the cost would be small compared to day-to-day care all year round, and tax deductions not your primary factor.
A proverbial business-minded pony farm (just to stick with that example) could just itemize their invoice into child-care and all the rest 
Yet, more likely then not, most tax offices won’t treat cost for a riding or skiing instructor same as those for a childcare provider.
An 2026 update: As per Federal Court landmark ruling, holiday camps shall count as deductible child care costs.
Press release March 12th: German / French
Short SRF article (German)
Ruling 9C_156/2025 (French)
How does that translate to Canton laws and practices (or will be)? I understand going forward, camps and such can be deducted as work-related expenses, with no more or at least less hair-splitting compared to regular child-care options?
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Too bad I already filed my taxes! This is quite a.big change.
If not taxed yet, you can amend it
For me, it’s perfect timing as we just get started with them. If Canton follows suit duly (I understand they have to) it’ll translate into hundreds of tax savings.
For you, as Guillaume said you could still try to amend. A quick call or mail to your local tax person with the bills, asking them to please add it, as you forgot or weren’t aware it might be deductible.
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