How to file your taxes with Swiss and foreign securities in 2025
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One question I often get is how to file taxes with stocks and dividends. This becomes especially popular when we add foreign stocks and dividends to the mix.
Many people are afraid of investing because they think it will make filing their taxes complicated. But in practice, it is not complicated to file taxes even with a large ETF portfolio.
In this article, we see how to file your taxes with Swiss Stocks and dividends, which is very simple. And with U.S. Stocks and dividends, which is slightly more complicated.
Filing taxes
In Switzerland, taxes are different for each canton. Each canton has its software and forms to complete your tax form. However, most of the forms are very similar and have similar names. So, if you can file your taxes in one canton, you should not have many issues filing them in another.
Since taxes differ in each canton in Switzerland, I need to take an example. So, I will take Fribourg as an example with the Fritax 2020 software. You can use this example to file your taxes for your canton. The concepts should be the same for each canton, but the software to fill them will differ slightly.
Some of the Swiss tax apps are better than others. I have not tested many of them, but from what I have seen, Fritax is probably average. It is not always intuitive, but it is relatively easy to use.
Unfortunately, Fritax is not available in English. So I will use the French version for my screenshots. The forms will be the same in German as well.
If you do not know why I am using U.S. ETFs, you may want to learn about the advantages of U.S. ETFs. They are related to how you will file your taxes with U.S. securities.
Swiss Securities
First, we start to see how to declare Swiss securities. These are the securities that are subject to the Swiss dividend withholding taxes. Indeed, the Swiss tax office will withhold 35% of the dividends. Your broker will do this directly.
In your tax declaration, you will have a form to enter all your assets (bank accounts, bonds, stocks, and lottery gains). In my French software, this is called “Etat des titres”, which translates to “Status of the securities”.
Here is the form before filling it:
In this form, you must list all of your Swiss securities, whether stocks or ETFs. Since I am recommending investments in ETFs, I will take an ETF as an example. But you would do exactly the same with a stock. For example, I will use CHSPI, the Swiss ETF I use in my portfolio.
You must indicate this is a security (choice 3) in the first column on each line. You must then indicate that this is a private asset (choice P) in the second column.
Then, you can press the “Listes des cours” (Lists of prices) to search for the prices of a security. This assistant will help you with your dividends and prices. You can enter the ISIN number of your ETF and press search (Chercher). For instance, the ISIN number of CHSPI is CH0237935652. You can find the ISIN number of each ETF on the website of the fund provider.
Then, you will see all the taxable income for this security. You can enter the number of shares, the buy date, and the taxable value, and the taxable dividend will be calculated for you. For instance:
The date will be considered to compute the dividends for this security. If you enter a date that is after some dividends have been issued, they will not be considered. And they will automatically compute the taxable wealth with the security value at the end of the year.
Here is an example of what this could look like.
The totals are automatically done at the end of the form. And these values are propagated into the rest of the forms.
If you already have securities before the beginning of the year, you have two options. If you file your taxes right after the year without losing your tax declaration, you can keep all the buy operations from the previous year. Or you can use the total number of shares at the beginning of the year with a single entry and a date like the last year of the previous year. I have already done that in the past, and I have never had any issues.
If you have sold securities during the year, you must also declare them. You can use a purchase date and sold date to let the software compute how many dividends you received before selling the shares. In that case, the software will automatically set the taxable value to zero.
Using ICTax
Unfortunately, not every Swiss taxes software allows you to get all these numbers inside the app. So, in this case, you will have to use the ICTax website. This is the reference for all the official end-of-year prices and currency conversions to file your taxes. One good thing is that this website is available in English, contrary to the tax software.
You can go to the website and search for the ISIN again:
And then, you can click on the ETF of your choosing. After that, you must do the same as before with the tax software. You will be able to enter the number of shares and purchase date. The website will automatically compute the tax value and the gross return. You can then copy these values directly into your tax declaration.
It is much less practical to file taxes like this than having the software do it for you. But in any case, it should not take you long to complete your Swiss securities.
It is also a good reason to keep your trading limited to a few ETFs. If you are buying many securities during the entire year, you will have to enter many lines. But it is not as complicated as many people believe.
If your ETF is not on ICTax, you can ask them to add it to the system. But most well-known ETFs should already be there. I have never had an issue so far.
U.S. ETFs / Securities
For U.S. ETFs and securities, it can get a little more complicated because there are a few possible cases.
First, it will depend on which broker you are using. If you are using a Swiss broker, you will pay two deductions:
- 15% withheld by the Swiss broker
- 15% directly withheld at source by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
If you are using a broker like Interactive Brokers, you will only see the IRS’s direct deduction. This is a foreign tax.
You need to use the DA-1 form to claim back foreign tax. You need to use the R-US 164 form to claim back Swiss withholding if you use a Swiss broker.
These forms are attachments to the form we covered in the previous section. And they are extremely similar. The difference will be in setting the percentages that you can claim back.
If you use other foreign securities, the idea remains the same, except that the percentages will differ. You will have to find the percentages for both columns for your situation.
In this case, Fritax did an excellent job since they put DA-1 and R-US 164 together. Therefore, there is only a single form to fill for foreign securities. This is a great idea!
Here is the empty combined DA-1 / R-US 164 form:
As we can see, it is extremely similar to the previous form. And it works exactly the same way. You must still select that this is an action and part of your private net worth. Then, you can use the same assistant to get all the tax information by pressing the “Liste de cours” button on top of the form.
They have all the information, even for U.S. ETFs, such as Vanguard Total World (VT). Here is an example of how to fill it with VT:
Once you have filled a line, you still need to select the country in column 3. This will be the US in our case.
Then, you need to update columns 7 and 9 with the percentages for your case. If you only fill the DA-1 form (with Interactive Brokers), you must set column 7 to the value 15. If you are filling the R-US 164 form (with a Swiss broker, for instance), you must set column 9 to the value 15.
Then, the tool will automatically compute how much taxes were withheld in both cases. And Fritax will automatically fill in the total.
Here is a filled DA-1 form with both sides filled:
If you use Interactive Brokers and only pay 15% of dividends withholding, you can change column 9 to the value 0.
All the other details are the same as for the Swiss securities, so you can look at the previous sections to get all the information. But with the Fritax software, it is not that bad to file your taxes with foreign securities. As you can see, the DA-1 and R-US 164 forms are almost the same as the standard securities form.
It is important to note that the DA-1 deduction is generally only applied if you have more than 100 CHF in foreign withholding. It does not change how you file your taxes, but knowing this may avoid a surprise when receiving your tax decision.
Using ICTax
If your tax software does not support getting the values directly from it, you can use the ICTax website for foreign securities too. It will give you all the dividends in CHF and the tax value of your securities at the end of the fiscal year.
This will be done exactly like we did for Swiss securities. For instance, you can search for Vanguard Total World on the website:
Make sure you choose the Stock version and not the bond version (unless you have both, of course). And then, you can fill it up like before. For instance:
Then, you will only have to copy these values into the DA-1 or R-US 164 form and select the correct withholding percentages. It is not more complicated than for Swiss securities.
Attachments
The tax office will request documents attesting to your dividends, capital gains, and net worth.
Some Swiss brokers will propose some special documents for taxes. And some people believe that only these reports are valid. But that is not correct. Even foreign brokers have documents that Swiss tax offices accept.
For instance, I use an annual activity statement report with Interactive Brokers. This contains all operations, all dividends, and the status of my shares at the end of the year. I have never had any issue with that. You can get this from the Reports tab. In there, you can generate an activity statement for the entire year.
Conclusion
There you have it! Following these simple steps, you can file taxes with Swiss and foreign securities! It is not as complicated as many people believe.
Even for U.S. Securities, it is not complicated. You must fill out an extra form (DA-1) in the best case and two in the worst case (DA-1 and R-US 164), but these forms are almost the same as for Swiss securities. So, I do not think this is a big deal.
If you are wondering why we need to fill all these lines, it is for the system to compute exactly how much you got from dividends. Since dividends are taxed as income, this must be precise. And only by indicating each buy and sell date will you get a precise amount.
Hopefully, this will help you file your taxes with securities.
If you want more tax information, I have an in-depth guide about Swiss taxes.
Recommended reading
- More articles about Investing Fundamentals
- More articles about Investing
- How to Choose a Stock Market Index for 2025
- Fractional Trading: Should you do it?
- The 6 Biggest Problems with Dividend Investing
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Hi Baptiste,
In IB > Reports > Tax Forms > we can find: “Dividend Tax Vouchers”
I select 2024, Switzerland, for example and see multiple dividends coming from CHSPI and their respective tax whittled, and for each it looks like I can Request a voucher.
Would you help me understand what is this exactly and if I should do something in specific?
Many thanks!
Btw, the Tax Whitheld looks a bit high IMO. For example:
– Dividend Paid: 39.04 CHF
– Tax Withheld: 21.02 CHF
– % Withheld: 53%
Does it look right?
For what ETF is that example? It does look high indeed. Do you see the same numbers in your activity statement?
Looking at those numbers, I‘m guessing the „Dividend paid“ number is the net that you actually received after tax. Because this and tax added makes the perfect gross dividend for the tax to be the 35% withheld in Switzerland.
21 + 39 = 60, 21/60 = 0.35
Can you check your activity statements of those months, it should show the total dividend?
Hi Bapt
This is a relatively new feature of IB. These vouchers contain the necessary information to reclaim dividends withheld by another country if you have a tax treaty with that country. Unfortunately, these vouchers are not free. But some countries require them to reclaim the dividend withholding.
In Switzerland, these vouchers are not necessary. You can simply generate the annual activity statement that I mentioned in this article and add it to your tax declaration, and you should be good.
Many thanks, Baptiste. This is for CHSPI, which is why it’s a bit concerning.
Take a look at the Withheld this year, do you have the same %? Any advice?
Paid Date Dividend Paid Tax Withheld % Withheld
2024-03-11 39.04 21.02 53.87%
2024-03-18 32.03 17.25 53.88%
2024-04-16 37.04 19.94 53.85%
2024-04-24 54.05 29.11 53.87%
2024-07-18 34.05 18.33 53.85%
I think Barbara is correct with her assesment.
The 39.04 is already net of taxes. So you received 39.04+21.02. Out of that, 21.02 is 35% withheld which is entirely correct and expected.
Hello, Great blog! I am doing a long shot here, but is there to claim back witholding taxes after ADR instruments? I have Chinese, German, French, Swedish, Danish etc. and seemed easier to manage everything in USD. Thanks!
Hi Lajos
I have no idea, unfortunately. I have never held (nor plan to) ADR stocks.
Hi thanks a lot for your article, i have just 1 question.
During the year i bought some stock more than once and sold some more than once.
Since you said that approximately the only thing that was required was ISIN and buy date + sell date (if any) and quantity, what date should I put?
Should i add 1 line per buy order of the same stock?
I’m using trading212 and my yearly statement has the columns “isin, quantity, average price, price, Unrealised P/L” for each
Hi Noah
In theory, you should put them all. All buy orders and all sell orders. That way, they will know exactly how much dividends you have received and how much value you have at the end of the year.
Hi Baptiste,
I have to questions:
1. How to fill your taxes with a etf like XDEQ using IBKR? The domicile is in Ireland.
2. On IBKR XDEQ (with the swiss flag symbol) is named XDEQ ebs, what ebs stands for?
Thank you
Hi Nick
1) Like a Swiss ETF, except that there is no withholding at all.
2) EBS stands for Electronic Bourse Switzerland. This is the stock exchange where ETFs are traded in the Swiss stock exchange.
Thank you, Baptiste. yes, important topic.
Does the tax office really study/check all the single lines of the DA-1 ?
I sold a dividend stock last year with a significant capital gain, which I bought years before.
Now I enter Buy date, Sell date and the combined sum of capital gain plus dividends into the Bruttoertrag field right ?
On the DA-1 finally all Bruttoertrag items are summed up in the second last line ‘Total II’.
Does the tax office meticulously single out from the Bruttoertrag sum that only the dividend, but not the capital gain part is taxable ?
Otherwise the capital gain could erroneously also be taxed.
thanks for any info/thoughts,
FrankieS
Hi Frankie
I have no idea if they check all lines against the statements. They probably don’t, but do either some random screening or have some algorithms to check for weird things that are then manually checked.
You should not enter capital gains manually, no. Capital gains should be computed automatically. If you have buy date/price and sell data/price, this should be enough for the tax office. In A and B in my example, you should only have income, namely dividends.
Unless you are considered a tax professional, the capital gains will not be taxed and may even not be computed.
thank you so much, dear Baptiste.
(i do still use the old paper forms, and then not every stock/ETF from abroad is in their database).
I will use now the ‘Bemerkungen’ field at the end of the main tax form to explain better to them and maybe add an Excel print.
thank you very kindly for anwering every question here.
If you do it manually, you should still only put the dividends into the “income” part. It should be similar to doing it with the software except that you have to do the math yourself indeed, which can raise some questions.
I felt that the tax office could think that I would hide something deliberately, if I would not put the capital gains (which are somehow a Bruttoertrag), too, into the Bruttoertrag field ? Maybe I do it like you recommend, but mention the not taxable capital gain on a separate excel sheet for transparency. thanks for the advice ! much appreciated.
I think mentioning it separately makes sense. Otherwise, you may really end up having to pay income tax on the capital gains if they do not validate the numbers.
No, you shouldn’t input gains from price increase at all unless you are qualified as a professional trader and have to pay tax on those. For everyday people there is no tax on share gains. This field is for the gains that ARE taxed as income: interest payments on bank accounts and dividends. If you use the software, you only have to input date and amount bought/sold, never the price. Because the tax office just cares how many shares you held at the dividend payout date and what the value of your portfolio is at the end of the year for wealth tax.
I have only 400 euro of dividend in 2023, does make sense to fill the DA-1?
The minimum is usually 100 CHF in most cantons (if not all). So, you would just go over it if you got 30% withholding. So, it’s up to you, but it’s always good to get some practice and to try to get somethin back.
Hi Baptiste
I have a fundamental question which I cannot seem to find an answer to in the internet.
It relates to what dividend witholding tax can one seek to recover as a Swiss resident and who/which institution actually processes the refund.
The easy esample is a UK company. They pay dividends with 0% withholding tax. Hence my Broker received this without a deduction. I declare this on my Swiss Tax return and pay whatever tax is due.
The next example is a German company. They pay dividends with 26.375% withholding tax. Hence my Broker received this and deducts the 26.375%. I declare this on my Swiss Tax return, noting the 26.375% deduction. I believe that my local tax office adds the Gross (100% before tax) amount to my taxable income in Switzerland. I also believe that my local tax office gives me a refund of 15% of the Gross dividend. Hence, I am still missing 11.375% of the Gross Dividend. I believe that I can (and have started the process to) reclaim this from the German Federal Tax office. If I succees, then essentially I receive 100% of the Gross dividend (like the UK example) and then have this fully taxed as income in Switzerland.
The same above applies to France but the percentages are different. (lower than the German example)
In the german example, I say I “believe” the local tax office reclaims/credits some of the 26.375% because the never send me a breakdown of what has been reclaimed/recredited. They simply send me a total for the year which is a mixture of lots of different European countries.
The final example is a USA company. They pay dividends with 30% withholding tax but if you have filled in a W8-Ben form and logged this with your broker, this 30% becomes 15%. I had done thie and hence my Broker deducts the 15%. I declare this on my Swiss Tax return, noting the 15% deduction. I am completely unsure if my local tax office gives me of this remaining 15% . I don’t know if I am entitled to it or not. If so, then this would be consistent with the UK share.
Hopefully you have some experience with this? Many Thanks
Hi Pat,
I can answer for the US shares, but I have never held stocks or ETFs from France, UK or Germany, so I have not yet researched these countries.
Your USA company example is right. 30% will be withheld without a W8-BEN. Once you have filled it, you will get only 15% withholding from the US. And you can declare these 15% in your tax return and this will be counted towards tax already paid (so you “get” it back).
Hello Baptiste,
What about non-Swiss, non-U.S. securities?
E.g. I have SLG OMXH25, Seligson & Co OMX Helsinki 25 UCITS ETF in Finland, bought through DEGIRO.
This does not show up in ICTax and TaxMe won’t let me complete the form without the ISIN.
Thanks.
Hi Dawn,
Normally, you should be able to enter things that are not in ICTax. In this case, you need to enter manually the values at the end of the year as well as the exact dividends.
Or you can write to ICTax to ask them to add this security. If this is an accumulating ETF, then, it may be an issue if not in ICTax because they can sometimes take capital gains and dividends as income. So, it’s where it’s important to ask ICTax.
What is TaxMe?
TaxMe is the online tax-tool that the Canton Bern uses.
Thanks. In this tax, I would contact either ICTax or the Bern tax office to know what to do since the security is being rejected by the tax return software.
Thanks Baptiste, I’ve already sent my request to ICTax.
Keep up the great work.
Hi Baptiste, Thanks a lot for your great articles! Incredibly helpful! I am filling my tax declaration in Zurich and I’m wondering whether you can help me with the following related to an iBKR account:
– Every entry on stocks / cash could use as source the yearly statement with all info. Would you upload the document on every entry for transparency?
– For the cash I have not invested in different currencies, do I need to provide the buy/sell movements? As there might be still some gain coming from the FX. Otherwise I would just put the total amount by end of the year.
Finally, should I include the certificate of interest of a credit card (Swisscards) when there is a “Balance in their favor” but 0 interest?
Thanks a lot for your amazing support! Best, Lucas
Hi Lucas,
I am glad it is helpful to you!
At least in Fribourg, I only need to add the document once. And then for each of the position, I can tick a box indicating that the document has already been submitted. I don’t think you have to enter the same document for each share.
No, there is no need to add all the movements, unless you are actively trading FX. And if you generate an activity statement, all these movements will be in the supporting document.
I have never done it, but I think you can deduct it as a debt indeed. But you cannot deduct it from your income.
Hi Baptiste,
Thanks a lot for your prompt answer.
Definitely really useful!
Have a great day!
Hey Baptiste,
Great work on your website, this has helped me start my investing and learn a lot about personal finances and Swiss guidelines.
I made my first investment today on VT (1.5kCHF) and I’m on a permit B (under 120k yearly salary) which means I don’t do a tax declaration or revision.
Now that I started investing, am I required to start making filing tax revision/return? I live in Geneva and the guidelines for Permit B Salary limits (<120k) are widely available but I can't seem to find the requirements for dividends or world wealth positions in order to be mandatory to file a tax return in Geneva.
Thank you!
Tom
Hi Tom
Congratulations on starting to invest!
Starting to invest does not force you to fill a tax declaration.
When your assets reach a given level (the level depends on each canton) or when your dividends reach 3000 CHF (I think same for each canton), then you will have to ask for a change to the ordinary assessment.
I did not find the number of wealth in Geneva either. It’s possible they do not have this rule. You would have to contact the tax office to be sure.