What it's worth
Net pay per year in the city of Zurich, single, no church tax, 2026, with the flat CHF 1,500 a month. The deduction lowers your taxable income, not your tax rate, so it's worth more the higher you earn.
| Gross salary | Standard | Expat deductions | Difference | A month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHF 80,000 | CHF 63,559 | CHF 66,922 | +CHF 3,363 | +CHF 280 |
| CHF 120,000 | CHF 91,483 | CHF 96,137 | +CHF 4,655 | +CHF 387 |
| CHF 200,000 | CHF 143,032 | CHF 149,249 | +CHF 6,217 | +CHF 518 |
The flat amount takes CHF 18,000 a year out of your taxable income for federal, cantonal and communal tax. Social security and the pension fund don't change. Check your exact salary
Who qualifies
You count as an expatriate if all of these are true:
- You're an executive (a member of management) or a specialist with special professional qualifications.
- Your foreign employer has sent you to work in Switzerland. A secondment within an international group counts, even on a local Swiss contract, if the foreign company takes you back afterwards.
- Your work in Switzerland is limited from the start to at most five years.
- For housing costs and the flat amount: you keep a home abroad that stays available for your own use. If you rent it out, you can't deduct housing.
- You were hired locally by a Swiss employer, even on a fixed-term contract. Since 2016 that no longer counts.
- Your contract is open-ended, or a series of short contracts that together run past five years.
The ordinance doesn't define "executive" or "specialist". Cantonal tax offices decide case by case, and many ask your employer to confirm your status before the deduction is applied.
What you can deduct
- Moving to Switzerland and back at the start and end, and the trips there and back for you and your family
- Travel between Switzerland and your home abroad, if you keep your tax residence there
- Reasonable housing in Switzerland, if you keep a home abroad for your own use
- School fees for children under 18 at a private school in a foreign language, when public schools don't teach in their language
- The cost of keeping your home abroad
- Furniture, electricity and other running costs of your Swiss home
- A higher cost of living or higher taxes in Switzerland
- Tax and legal advice
- Costs your employer pays directly or refunds against receipts: those aren't salary, so there's nothing to deduct
Instead of proving travel, moving and housing costs, you can deduct a flat CHF 1,500 a month. You can only use it if you could deduct housing, so you need the home abroad. School fees aren't part of the flat amount, so on the ordinance's wording they can be claimed on top. If your employer pays you a lump sum for these costs, it counts as salary and you deduct the costs, or the flat amount, from it.
How long it lasts
For as long as your assignment is temporary, and at most five years. Example for an assignment that starts in 2026:
If your assignment becomes permanent, or is extended past five years, the deduction stops. Tax offices look at what was planned from the start: courts in Zurich and Zug have refused it where fixed-term contracts were strung together.
How to claim it
- 1Ask your employer to confirm your expatriate status, and keep the papers that show your home abroad: a lease or title deed and a residence certificate. Some cantons approve the status in advance.
- 2If you're taxed at source (a B or L permit), your employer takes the flat CHF 1,500 a month off the pay your withholding tax is worked out on.
- 3To claim higher actual costs, ask the cantonal tax office for an ordinary assessment (nachträgliche ordentliche Veranlagung) by 31 March of the next year. If you earn CHF 120,000 or more, you're assessed this way anyway.
- 4If you file a normal tax return (C permit, or married to a Swiss citizen or C permit holder), claim the costs or the flat amount as work costs in the return.
The deduction applies to federal tax under the ordinance, and to cantonal and communal tax under each canton's own rules. Zurich, Zug, Bern, Geneva, Basel and the other cantons we checked apply it the same way.
When it ends
Once the deduction stops, all your pay is taxed under standard rules. At CHF 120,000 a year in Zurich that means CHF 387 less a month.
If you stay in Switzerland on a permanent contract, you can still deduct the normal work costs, and pillar 3a payments, like everyone else.
See what you keep with and without the deductionsLump-sum taxation is something else
Switzerland's other well-known relief, lump-sum taxation (Besteuerung nach dem Aufwand), is only for foreigners who don't work in Switzerland. Tax is worked out on living costs, with a federal minimum of CHF 435,000 a year in 2026. Zurich, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Schaffhausen and Appenzell Ausserrhoden have abolished it. It isn't open to employees, so we don't calculate it.
Sources and limits
- Expatriates-Verordnung (ExpaV), SR 642.118.3, Art. 1–4 · Fedlex
- Bundesgesetz über die direkte Bundessteuer (DBG), Art. 14, 26, 83–89a · Fedlex
- Quellensteuerverordnung (QStV), SR 642.118.2 · Fedlex
- Zürcher Steuerbuch, ZStB 26.2 (Expatriates) · Kantonales Steueramt Zürich
- ESTV, Tarife für die direkte Bundessteuer 2026 · ESTV
Information, not tax advice. The salary figures come from our Switzerland calculation for the city of Zurich: federal tax reproduces the 2026 federal tariff, and canton and city tax match published 2026 results. The conditions are a summary: your cantonal tax office decides whether you qualify.