25 September 2025
by Eilidh Norman
Client Relationship Manager & Financial Planner
If you’re living in Switzerland and managing your own investments, you might be wondering what you can deduct on your Swiss tax return. The good news? There are some deductions available, but the rules are nuanced, vary between cantons, and apply only to specific types of fees.
This article summarizes the key federal rules, highlights common cantonal variations, and explains which investment-related fees are deductible. While deductions are limited, they can reduce the overall tax burden, making them worth reviewing.
Wealth Declaration: Swiss residents must declare their net global bank and investment wealth as of December 31 each year. While substantial cantonal exemptions often reduce or eliminate this wealth tax for individuals with moderate assets, full disclosure is still required.
What Counts as Net Worldwide Wealth? This includes all bank accounts (even joint accounts), cash (including cryptocurrency), education savings plans (e.g., 529 or UTMA/UGMA accounts), and after-tax retirement accounts (like Roth IRAs or UK ISAs) in addition to securities and investments such as shares, bonds, mutual funds, ETF’s, private equity holdings and savings bonds (series EE/I Bonds).
Pre-tax retirement savings (such as traditional IRAs) are generally excluded. However, in Switzerland this treatment can vary based on how and when assets are accessed so consult a tax advisor if you’re unsure.
Income Declaration: All interest and dividends earned worldwide must be declared and are taxed as part of an individual’s ordinary income. However, capital gains on the sale of investments (even short-term) are not taxable for private investors (unless you're deemed a 'professional investor' by Swiss authorities) so these do not normally need to be reported.
Under Swiss Federal rules, only expenses directly tied to managing an individual’s investments, such as portfolio administration, can be deducted.
Current & savings account deductions:
Typically allowed are account administration costs:
basic account maintenance fees
negative interest charges on cash holdings (excluding interest on debt)
Some cantons also allow a deduction for savings interest but only within a capped bundle that includes insurance premiums. Because Swiss insurance costs are high, many taxpayers hit the cap before this deduction even comes into play.
Typically disallowed costs are:
Bank fees and charges
card charges
cash withdrawal fees
Portfolios/Investment deductions:
Only “custody and administration” costs are allowed, not “transaction” costs such as trading commissions or financial advice.
Typically permitted costs/charges (“custody/administration” costs):
Negative interest charged on cash balances i.e. interest charged to depositors to hold their money
Safety deposit box rental fees
Custody fees for holding securities
Fees for annual security statements required for the preparation of tax returns
Charges for redeeming coupons (dividends)
Reimbursement applications for foreign withholding taxes
Transfer fees – fees for transferring a securities portfolio to a different bank
Specifically disallowed costs (akin to “transaction” costs):
Brokerage fees and commissions for buying and selling securities
Stamp duties for securities transactions and issuing new securities
Commissions and fees for buying and selling securities (brokerage)
Financial, investment and tax advice/preparation fees
Bank package costs that include non-asset management services (e.g. (credit) card fees, concierge services, transaction costs)
Management costs for pillar 3a assets (although contributions to pillar 3a can be deducted separately)
While cantons generally follow Federal rules, interpretations vary. Documentation is always key.
Some cantons provide the option to choose between a simplified flat-rate deduction (often a fixed percentage of the account value) and actual expense reporting and the taxpayer can weigh up the options each year from a time and/or cost perspective to choose the most beneficial. In some instances, even when the flat rate deduction is less beneficial in actual tax saving, it is still the preferred option from a time and cost saving perspective.
Flat rate / bundled / all-in-one asset management fees
Many providers charge a flat or “bundled” fee combining both deductible charges such as custody or statement preparation fees with nondeductible charges like brokerage fees and commissions. This can make it extremely difficult to determine the deductible element.
Cantons that allow the simplified flat rate deduction (e.g. Zurich, Vaud, Basel-Land and Aargau) effectively sidestep this problem by allowing one form or another of the flat rate deduction (cantonal specific) alluded to earlier as an alternative.
The canton of Geneva does this with a bundled fee deduction rather than a flat rate deduction. This is a prescribed percentage deduction of the bundled fee incurred (see table below).
Where a detailed breakdown of the bundled fees can’t be produced and these deduction options aren’t available in a particular canton, such as Bern for example, the individual may unfortunately lose the ability to take a deduction.
Some of the cantonal variations in the treatment of fees:
| Canton | (supporting docs required) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zurich | ||||
| Vaud | ||||
| Geneva | ||||
| Bern | ||||
| Basel | ||||
| Aargau |
* If the managing third party charges a flat rate fee and cannot prove the breakdown between deductible and non-deductible costs, the amount of the deductible costs may be estimated using the following principles (estimate is made per deposit):
Deposit values up to CHF 2 million: 3‰ (0.3%) of deposit value permitted (flat rate deduction)
Deposit values over CHF 2 million: CHF 6,000 + half of the flat rate fee reduced by CHF 6,000 but not more than 2‰ (0.2%) of the deposit value plus CHF 2,000
If you want to optimize deductions and avoid surprises:
Keep good bank and investment records
Know your canton’s rules.
Request detailed fee breakdowns from your bank, broker, service provider where possible.
If anything’s unclear, talk to a local Swiss tax expert or your cantonal Tax Authority.
Links to cantonal tax authority websites on this topic (where available):
Geneva : (See “Frais bancaires – Titres et Relevés fiscaux)
Vaud: (See Box 490 – Pg 35 of the Vaud tax return guide)
Zurich: (see section D)
References:
Article written in collaboration with Chat GPT and the use of cantonal authority websites.
At White Lighthouse Investment Management, we are both investment management and financial planning professionals. While we do not file tax returns on behalf of our clients, we maintain a close working relationship with many of our clients’ tax advisors and help our clients invest more efficiently. We strongly encourage our clients to maintain tax compliance in all jurisdictions they are required to, however we also encourage them not to pay any more tax than they legally have to. If you are a client of White Lighthouse reading this and would like to discuss the implications for your situation, please reach out to us. If you would like to inquire about working with White Lighthouse, please visit the Contact US page on our websites www.white-lighthouse.com (For US taxpayers resident anywhere in the world) or www.white-lighthouse.ch (for non-Americans in Switzerland).