Having trouble understanding this paragraph as I read somewhere on the forum last year that mileage claims on Swiss tax returns were going to be limited in future to CHF3,000.

"Pour le trajet d'aller et retour à midi, il ne peut toutefois être compte que 15 francs au maximum par jour, mais 3,200 francs par an au maximum. Le nombre de jours de travail pris en consideration s'eleve à 220 par annee. Ce chiffre correspond à celui indique dans les directives de l'Administration federale des contributions. En cas d'interruption passagere de l'activite "salariee (par exemple: chomage, arret maladie / accident / maternite), la deduction annuelle de 220 jours est reduite au prorata."

I'm trying to understand if the 3,200 mentioned is just for people travelling back home for lunch, or whether that's the maximum figure that can be claimed for travel to/from work if your base is a long way from your home. Google Translate gives me this:

"For the journey back and forth at noon, however, it may not be more than 15 francs a day, but a maximum of 3,200 francs a year. The number of working days taken into consideration amounts to 220 per year. This figure corresponds to that indicated in the guidelines of the Federal Tax Administration. In the event of a temporary interruption of the wage-earning activity (eg unemployment, sickness / accident / maternity leave), the annual deduction of 220 days shall be reduced pro rata."

but it's still not clear what the 3,200 applies to.

OH works in Lausanne so does a round trip of 150km every working day. Total days worked were 213 so he clocked up 31,950km last year which in previous years would have meant a deduction of 18,975 on the tax return.

So which figure do I need for the tax return? The 3,200 or the 18,975? I can't see anything in the accompanying tax return booklet that mentions this limit of 3,000 a year on mileage claims. I thought it was coming in from 2016, but maybe it doesn't start until 2017's tax form?

That clearly specifies returning home for lunch, which is CHF 15 if you don't, so therefore your lunchtime travel expense can't exceed the wrte-off for lunch not taken at home.

So, both (3200+18975)

Tom

This applies for returning home for lunch.
This is the same amount which you can deduct for non subsidized lunch meals when you are not able to return to home. For obvious reason you cannot claim both.

So what you can deduct: One leg to and from work to home, plus in case you return to home for lunch up to CHF 3200 for this journey.

The CHF 3000 limit only applies to federal tax. For cantonal and communal tax the limit can be still higher/unlimited.

In Canton Vaud:
For the travel you can use 0.70 CHF/km for the first 15'000km and 0.35 CHF/km for anything beyond that.

In your case 15'000 * 0.7 + (31'950 - 15'000) * 0.35 = 10'500 + 5' 933 = 16'433 CHF

See page 22 - 24.
http://www.vd.ch/fileadmin/user_uplo...01_IG_2016.pdf

__________________
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Thanks you two. I thought it probably just referred to the lunchtime journeys, but wasn't 100% sure, hence my query.

Our figures here in Fribourg canton are .70c per km for the first 10,000, .60c per km for the next 10,000 and then .50c per km over that so 18,975. He can also claim 7.50 per day for lunch as he has a subsidised canteen at work.

If that 3,000 is only at Federal level, then they get to sort that out at their end - not something I need to work out for my return. Good. Now I can get the forms filled in and sent off. Ours have to be in by 1st March so we're a bit unlucky there compared to other cantons.

If you use a program, it will automatically cap the deductions for you.
If you use the paper form, you will see the max CHF 3000 printed on it in the federal column.

Or you can pay 20.- (or is it 30?) and get an extension on the deadline .

In Kanton Zürich it´s for free

In theory ours have to be in by February 24th but we can get a free extension until 30th April ( which I'm told most people do) or pay 20 chf for an extension until 30th June or 30 chf for an extension until 30 th September.

I'm just getting the paperwork together to do ours but we have already requested the free extension.

We don't have a Federal column.

Tom

Here as well, plus the normal due date is April 30th.

(and we haven't even received our forms yet)

Tom

Neither do we.

Sneaky and intransparent.

You actually do not know how they come up and calculate the total income for federal tax

On the other hand we have no seperate wife/husband collumns,

Never needed an extension, but this is the first year that we've had a notice in with the paperwork to say it can be extended if you want to pay the extra 20 francs. So I assume any extensions for previous years were free.

No, no federal column for us either. Just the husband and spouse columns, but I won't need that until next year as I've only just started receiving my small Swiss pension.

Had a minor panic last week as OH's salary slips are done electronically through an outside sourcing company since last year. Went to print the 2016 Salary Statement off, then checked it later in the day only to see it was half the figures it should have been. Frantic e-mails to OH and he finally by chance found out that there were two Statements that needed printing. The company had merged the company he worked for into the main company so technically he worked half the year for one and half the year for the other. Went back onto the site and printed out the second one which combined made much more sense salary-wise. He only found out because he ran into the HR director when he was going to a meeting. There was nothing in the e-mail he and others received to tell them there were 2 Statements.

No, canton FR had that last year too. We didn't pay it, missed the deadline, but weren't penalised.
We're currently getting polite reminders to complete the form for "gains immobiliers", but since we haven't had the final accounting for the build, we keep having to defer them.

Does he actually come home for lunch every day?

We do receive detailed calculation sheets for communal, cantonal and federal taxes which we have 30 days to contest.

With a 150km round trip I should jolly well hope not. It would be a pretty expensive lunch.

Goodness, no. He has a subsidised canteen at work.