What documents to provide for foreign bank accounts

Taxes
1

Hi everyone,

Over the years, I’ve worked in many countries and accumulated many bank accounts, which I never closed. They now earn some interest, which I need to declare on my tax form. This is fine, and I’ve done it, but how much documentary evidence do I need to attach to the tax form? Other countries don’t provide an “end of year summary” with capital and interest like they do here (I asked, they won’t do it), so what evidence do you attach to the tax declaration for these foreign accounts? The only way to provide precise numbers is to upload all 12 statements for the whole year. It sounds overkill (and not ideal from a privacy point of view), but is this what I am supposed to do? Or is it enough to provide the December statement, which will at least cover the final capital, but won’t have all the yearly interest.

Anybody else with foreign accounts, what have you done?

Thanks!

2

For my French bank account, i download the December bank statement.
Tax officer will get total amount on each account in euros at the end of the year.
That should be enough to validate the fortune amount declaration.

3

It’s enough to validate the fortune, but not enough to validate the interest…
Do you earn interest in that account?

4

It’s detailed in every bank statements beginning of January.
You just need to convert them to chf using revenu or fortune rate

5

Maybe depend on Canton but in Zürich you don’t need to provide documents for those (they’ll ask you if they want it).

Note that with automated data sharing, they will know more about your foreign accounts than your swiss ones anyway.

2 Likes
6

I just give a single page statement for my Greek account to my (Greek-Swiss) accountant and they sort it out.

7

Thanks a lot, I think then I’ll just attach the December statement and let them ask if they want more info.

While on the topic - is there a consensus (in canton zurich) about what needs or doesn’t need to be evidenced with documents? For example:

  • Interest (we discussed)
  • All buy/sell transactions from brokers?
  • Foreign property valuations for wealth?
  • Income from foreign property rent? Foreign airbnb income?
  • What about public transport deductions? Can you claim the value of a pass without showing evidence?
  • Meal deductions? (I don’t really have any receipts for those…)