Hello, we are moving to Zug next year and I am setting up a consulting business. I have discovered that if most revenue and costs for your business are generated from outside of Switzerland, Zug, then tax is low. I am wanting to know if running your business from your rented home can be claimed as company costs as well? Rent and consumables etc.?

Well I consider the business tax for Zug low and I do business inside and outside of the country.

Do not get excited about claiming to much of your rent as an offset to costs, it is allowed but will be minimal.

Swiss residents pay the same taxes no matter where their consulting income comes from.

You can claim rent for 1 room in your home as business expense. There is a formula for calculating the deduction.

Do you know if you can claim two rooms in your house (Zurich), if they are both outfitted as home office space? My wife and I both work from home now.

I have gotten mixed signals from two different accountants.

Thnx,

fduvall

The answer is yes, however you have to put some words around it so that the "accountants" and others understand. We have had a few, what is this? just explain and if it is 100% for business then there should be some deductable expense allowed.

My guess is that you can claim an office room and she can claim an office room. However, it would be strange, if you have a 3 room apartment

The tax assessor will also be looking at what percentage of your revenue is being claimed as various expenses.

Yes...before we claim, we will check all of the details. We have two spare bedrooms and lots of space, so hoping it will work out. One accountant told us that we could deduct 30% of our rent (2rmsx15%) and that would be significant.

fduvall

I think there is a rule about a maximum of 20% can be used as a home office. I also see this advertised sometimes when a place is up for sale. The tax office calculated and approved a deduction for us and I use this every year. The formula isn't just the proportion of rooms used as an office. Our one room office works out to be around 10% of the deemed rental value - and we don't have 10 rooms. The formula includes heat, electric and cleaning.

To claim a home office in Zug you need to work at least 3 full days from home every week. You claim this cost as part of your work costs and it is something they question if it is too much.

An often used formula is 1/(n+2),
where n is the nominal number of rooms.

Example: A 3-bedroom flat is 5 nominal rooms.
Hence, deductible for 1 office room is 1/7 (approx 14%)

Partial exemption of foreing income only if you operate through a company and assuming most of your turnover and expenses are of foreign source (usually at least 70%-80%).

Even without special tax treatment, taxes in Zug are low.

Reading this a funny thought. I'd been "working" from home for more then a year looking for job does that count

Why don't you go and ask an accountant from Zug ? Practices differ between cantons, an accountant will tell exactly what is what, it will cost you an hour of his time, somewhere between CHF 150.--/250.--, if the business cannot afford this then maybe the business is not viable.

If you set up correctly from the start you are fine but it's not easy to correct start up errors. In Canton of VD every change on the Commercial Register, prepared by a notary of course costs around CHF 1'000.--, even to change the registered address of the company.

Great business being a notary, license to print money as far as i can see !

My experience with using accountants here was that they milked it for all they could, not answering simple questions in the meeting and having to look up stuff and make calls later. Before I knew it, the one hour turned into 5 hours for things I could have called up and asked the tax office myself or looked up online. I could see the "cha ching" in their eyes as soon as they saw the numbers.

One accountant in the area who speaks very good English and many friends come from Zurich to see him, really pads out his bills. He does things such as offer to collect people from the station and then of course bill for it and he sent me spreadsheets to fill in before he would answer any questions. Someone querying their bill was also charged for the time taken to answer their query.

Sure, screwing foreigners is a national pastime here, just like the English drink cups of tea ! If you let them they will, so have a list of questions ready ask him for precise answers and if he waffles a bit, tell him to get back on track; you are the client

Swiss tax offices are usually very helpful. In Zurich, you can send them an eMail and get answers within a day. However, you cannot pose anonymous questions. And they do not offer proactive "creative" ideas like a smart accountant might