Hello all!

First post here, after some intensive reading over the past few weeks! Before saying anything else, I must say a big thank you to all the helpful people on this forum for providing invaluable information, I've already benefitted greatly.

I have some questions relating to taxation and I haven't been able to find answers.

I'm a recently-arrived EU 17 citizen, seeking a permit as self-employed in St Gallen, working at home. I need to calculate my net income, and to that end I need to be able to estimate what my tax will be. I already know my health insurance cost and the AHV percentage I will pay, but I have a problem working out local and federal taxes.

I have played with the tax calculator at the Kantonal pages:

http://www.steuern.sg.ch/home/sachth...lkulator0.html

...but there doesn't seem to be any info on what the actual rates are, any personal allowances, and info on which expenses can be treated as allowable business expenses. I would particularly like to know whether I can claim part of my phone and electricity bills as business expenses. Also, if I buy new business equipment, how much of the expense is tax deductible - 100%, 50%, or something else?

Any information or pointers in these matters will be greatly appreciated.

OK, after playing with some more calculators linked to from these forums, I think I've figured out how the tax rates work. The percentages rise incrementally with income, instead of there being a small number of specific bands.

But I still haven't been able to find info on allowable business expenses, beyond the "cantons decide this" explanation. Without some concrete info I'm afraid of spending on the basis of wrong assumptions, and then getting stung when the tax bill comes.

Really would appreciate it if anyone could point me in the right direction.