Home Office: This Is What Saves You Taxes When Working From Home

Are you an entrepreneur in Switzerland and working from home? Then you have plenty of opportunities to save taxes by knowing which expenses you can claim as operating expenses. Here we'll show you some expenses from your home office that you might not know you could deduct for tax purposes.

The focus is on tax optimization both for a public limited company or limited liability company as well as for sole proprietorships. Entrepreneurship is booming, and in Switzerland, as in many countries around the world, most often start their business from home, initially without employees. Here are some typical expenses for you that can have a tax-reducing effect.

Home office study

The private study can be deducted from the tax return, provided that three things are met cumulatively. First, an essential and regular activity in the home office of at least a third to 40% of working time. Second: You have no other workplace available or the use is not reasonable or impossible. Third: You can actually separate the workplace from living space. What is not allowed if you set up your home office in the corner of a bedroom. Regardless of whether the garage, conservatory or a study serves as a home office - you can set off the space in your apartment or house that you regularly use for your work.

The calculation formula is simple: gross rent per month or per year divided by number of rooms + 2. So if you live in a 4-room apartment for CHF 36,000 rent per year, you divide 36,000 by 6, which results in CHF 6,000. In the example, you can deduct CHF 500 rental share from business expenses for tax purposes. In the case of residential property, the gross rent is replaced by the imputed rental value + additional costs. The rest of the formula is the same.

Purchases and administrative costs for working from home

Of course, when working from home, you also need a decent chair, table, or other work materials such as machines in the garage, or simply a printer. All of these expenses are tax deductible. Either directly upon purchase, or staggered over the useful life as depreciation.

You can also claim your domestic Internet and telephone bill as an expense if you use both primarily for your business.

Using your private car for this kind of employment

If you have just set yourself up and own a private car that you now also use for appointments for your business, then you can submit the pro rata expenses here.

Expenses for business trips are reimbursed at a rate of 70 centimes per kilometer. It is important that you create a logbook that records the number of kilometers, date and reason for the trip. Watch out! The 70 centimes cover all costs for the vehicle, which means that you continue to pay all costs for the vehicle yourself and cannot deduct them from tax deductions. This includes repairs, gas, tires, oil, rented garage spaces, car insurance or vehicle depreciation.

If you travel to a business appointment combined with a visit to a restaurant, you can also claim this as an expense. Always remember to get a VAT-compliant receipt for all expenses. With the Numarics app, you can immediately scan it and have it processed in your bookkeeping.

business trips

We are increasingly working from home, but we have customers and business partners all over the world, to whom we also take another trip with the aircraft company. In doing so, you can completely deduct your expenses for flight, accommodation and other transportation as business expenses and thus reduce your annual taxes. Of course, this also applies to international industry meetings, industrial events or trade fairs. It is important that you can prove that the flight is for business purposes. If you combine it directly with a private trip, you will divide the costs well documented.

Do you travel a lot for business? Then a lump sum allowance for food and drinks in accordance with tax conditions is worthwhile. These clearly regulate how much and whether you can deduct lunch or even morning and dinner. In return, you can deduct less from your private tax return. Numarics will draw up expense regulations for you with the tax authority of your canton.

Business coaching

Business coaching is popular and many founders use it to get help getting started. Of course, this is also related to your business and therefore you can claim all expenses.

business loans

In general, the rule of thumb applies: If you spend exclusively for business purposes, then it is part of your company's expenses. By the way, interest or fees on a business loan that you may have bought to get started are also deductible.

Receipts and receipts must always be kept for 10 years. For efficient processes and so that your home office office is not overwhelmed by paper, you can also simply scan the document with the Numarics app and let Numarics store it electronically for 10 years. We ensure that all legal requirements of the Business Book Ordinance (GeBüV) regarding archiving are met.

Try out Enumarics, with us you have a professional trustee with an award-winning mobile and web app at your side and we do bookkeeping, taxes, financial statements and everything related to wages for you. Simply download the app and our team of qualified trustees is available to you for your individual tax situation with a click or phone.

‍