How to file your taxes with Swiss and foreign securities in 2025
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(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)
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.
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Hi Baptiste.
I understand you suggest to add the cash balances in CHF and USD which I have in my IBKR. Fine with me for this.
Now, regarding the VT stocks I own (bought via IBKR UK): I understand that the dividends I receive are already deducted by 15%. Is there any way I can get that money back?
Thanks in advance!
Hi,
Actually, this article is about the stocks, not the cash balance, and it describes exactly what you want. The DA-1 gets you that money back.
Thank you. So the tax office just calculates 15% of the dividends I received from VT and returns that amount to me, correct? Do you know how this happens? Is it in form of tax deduction, or do I get a payout onto my bank account from the tax office?
It’s a tax deduction. It counts as tax already paid, like withholding on interest you earn on your bank accounts.
Hi Baptiste,
which report do you attach? because with IB I have 3 options, under the tax documentation there is:
– Form 1042S
– fx profit spreadsheet
– Dividend report
Which one do you attach?
Thanks
Hi Gabriele,
None of them :)
I mention in the article that I use an annual activity statement that I can generate at any time from IB.
Perfect thanks.
But what if I had to have liquid money on the statement that was not invested in any ETF? what could I indicate?
Thanks
In this case, you need to declare the cash at IB like the cash in your bank account. I usually do this by using my IB account number as the account number in the list of bank accounts. And if I have both USD and CHF, I declare both.
Thank you very much for your help and time!
Hi Baptiste,
How would you declare the income received from the IBKR shares lending program?
I notice in my account statement around 30 pages of every share being lent and for which timeperiod.
Thanks
Hi Corinne
Excellent question. And I am not sure about the answer. If it’s significant, I would probably try to declare it as bank interest in the accounts page.
Hi Baptiste,
I have a question regarding filing stocks in tax declaration that I have obtained from my employer (company stocks). The CHF amount of the stocks is written in the lohnausweis and related taxes has been already deducted from my salary. The CHF amount o the stocks is included in the nettolohn in the lohnausweis. Is my understanding correct that I have to state these obtained stocks also in the section Wertschriften of the tax declaration?
Thank you.
Magdalena
Once these stocks are yours, then these need to be entered in your tax return as part of your Vermogen… whereupon you will be liable to wealth tax on these. No real difference to the salary you are paid. Once cash arrives into your account, it becomes part of your wealth.. until it is spent !
Hi Magdalena
Once they have vested, you will need to declare them as assets and pay wealth tax on them indeed. And this will also be declared once as income.
Hi Baptiste,
Thanks for a really useful website with loads of information.
I have some US ETFs via Interactive Brokers but did not find anywhere where I can do the W8BEN form on their website. Where exactly do I have to do this?
Thanks a lot for your help
Matt
Hi Matt,
You are welcome, I am glad this is useful.
I have talked about filling up W8BEN in another article: How to Open an Interactive Brokers Account in 2025?
You have to set up tax forms properly. In most cases, this is already done during onboarding.
Hi Baptiste,
rookie question, is there a way to get back the 15% tax of IRS? I don’t fully understand if it’s lost or if the swiss taxes gives me something back.
Thanks for all your helpful articles
Sam
Hi sam,
If you use US ETFs and have signed a W8BEN form, you can reclaim the 15% dividends indeed. This is done with the DA-1 form as the example on this article. This gets deducted from your taxes (you pay less taxes).
Hi there,
Two simple questions:
1) DA-1 Form. I am doing this for the very first time with VaudTax, and it looks like I can enter information about Stocks/ETFs directly via that platform.
Is the DA-1 automatically generated or do I still need to fill out manually the DA-1 PDF form?
2) I have cash balance in IB giving me Interest. Where would it be appropriate to declare that? In Stocks, in Saving Accounts, in “Autre Forutune et Revenues de Fortune”?
Thanks so much!
Hi
1) Normally, you have two forms. The DA-1 is only for US stocks and your normal assets list for your CH stocks (if any). However, from what I have heard, the Vaud web interface is pretty bad at handling that.
2) I would put that with your other bank accounts and use the IB account number as the identifier since you do not have an IBAN.