The Easiest Way to Prepare your Geneva Tax Declaration

Every January, it is the same story. The tax declaration form arrives in the post. It must be completed and sent back before the end of March. There is no need though to get stressed. There is an easy way to do it. Just follow our tips!

Firstly, you need to gather up and organize all the documents from the past year that will be used to complete your tax declaration.

Steps to organize your documents:

Take a binder and name it ‘Tax Declaration 2016’. Use dividers with the following labels:

• Salary certificates
• Medical expenses
• Health Insurance Certificates
• Life Insurance
• Donations
• Advance payment for Cantonal and Communal Tax/Federal Tax: The tax authorities will send you 10 payment slips with the amount that needs to be payed each month. Our advice is to pay monthly.  A lump sum covering the full year will be a strain on the expenses. The federal tax is also payable monthly, and though less costly, we recommend that you also pay it in installments.
• Child benefit Certificates (in French, ‘Allocation familiale’ or ‘Allocations de formation prof.’)
• Certificates from the Banks:
  • Certificates from the bank(s) in which you have a savings account
  • Certificates from the bank in which you have your rent guaranty
  • Certificates from the bank(s) in which you have credit cards
  • Certificates from the bank(s) in which you have a loan

These are the basic documents for your tax declaration. Do not let the work build up, but collect the necessary papers during the year and file them as you go.

An example:

To illustrate this, below is an example of a someone preparing their ‘Tax Declaration 2016’ for a family of 4; a father, mother, son (10 years old) and a daughter (16 years old).

In the example below, we have distinguished the parents and the children with different colors for clarity:  Peter Smith    Marie Smith    John Smith    Lisa Smith

That way, each time you receive an amount that you need to pay, you can highlight with the same color the amount and the name of the person related to the expense.

You should file the original salary certificate, normally received during the month of January, and make a copy of it (for both the wife and husband if required).

It is good have all the medical expenses collected, as these are tax deductible. Each time you receive expenses from the health insurance company, include them in an Excel sheet for each member of the family (please see link at end of article for a tutorial on Excel).

You can use the excel sheet to register all the amounts that have been charged per insured person, including doctor’s appointments, controls at the hospitals and medication costs.

You also need to present the original invoices to the health insurance company. They will reimburse a percentage of the invoice. Do not forget to make copies of all the original invoices because you will need to attach them to the tax declaration.

Depending on your types of insurance, the certificates from the health insurance company should include:

• Assurance obligatoire des soins
• Police – Assurance d’un capital en cas d’Invalidité ou décès par suite d’accident
• Assurance d’voyage
• Assurance pour les soins complémentaires
• Assurance pour les soins dentaires
• Global – Assurance complémentaires pour les soins ambulatoires et hospitaliers

The medical insurance certificate shows the amount you paid each month, and can be deducted from your tax.

The child benefit (allocations familiales) is considered an income and therefore should be declared. For a child under 15 years of age, the amount is CHF 300. For children 16 to 25 years, it is called “Allocation de formation professional,” and is CHF 400 per child. It should be noted that you receive these latter funds as an income only if your son or daughter is studying at a commerce school, college or in an institute.

The life insurance certificate shows how much you paid per year. You need to make a copy for the binder.

In case you have made donations, keep a track of the payments in your binder, as they are deductible.

Also keep a track of all the advance payments for Cantonal and Communal Tax/Federal Tax you have made to the tax authorities.

Attestation from the banks:

You need to request from your bank the following information if they don’t send it to you automatically:

• Attestation of interest that you have paid to the bank for credit cards, loans, and;
• Attestation of interest that you have received from the bank from your rent guaranty account and/or savings account.

Babysitting costs: All the receipts that you have paid to the ‘maman du jour’ and ‘crèche’, should be kept and filed in your tax declaration binder, and can be tax deductible.

Maintenance allowance is also deductible from the tax declaration for divorced couples.

The mode of transport from home to work is also tax deductible. If your company does not pay for your transport, keep the TPG tickets as proof.

If you are unable to have lunch at home, because of the distance and lunch time hour, and you have to stay close to the office you can deduct CHF 3,200.00 per year.

You have the right to deduct from your taxes for each child CHF 6,500.00 from the Federal Tax.

Summary

Prepare and file all documents needed for your tax declaration during the year. I would also contact a fiduciary to help complete your tax declaration. They know a lot, and are up-to-date, about new laws and expenses that can be deducted.

Normally, the cost for a simple declaration is CHF 95 and for a couple, CHF 105.

The fiduciary will request some original documentation that needs your signature and then sent to the tax authorities.

For this reason, it is a good idea to make copies of the following:

• Salary Certificate (the original should be attached with the tax declaration form),
• Bank Certificates (the original should be attached with the tax declaration form),
• Health Insurance Certificates (a copy should be attached with the tax declaration form and keep the original in your binder),
• Life Insurance Certificate (a copy should be attached with the tax declaration form and keep the original in your binder),
• Donations (the original should be attached with the tax declaration form). It is a good idea to prepare a summary of all donations by name and amount given.
  Also, prepare your excel sheet for the medical expenses, so you will have the details of the amount of the expense and the total amount by each member of your family.  For example:

Below is an example of a financial summary to present to your fiduciary.

Also attach all the documents required to your declaration, and keep a copy of them for your records.
I hope this advice helps in preparing your next tax declaration. Any comments and suggestions are always welcome.

For a tutorial on using Excel, see http://chandoo.org/wp/excel-basics/