when I read about taxes it seems that expats came make some certain deductions for having a home in their mother country. I do not understand if I qualify as an expat though.
I have an apartment in my home country which I do not rent out because I go back ~every 2nd month and then live in the apartment.
I am a consultant but employed via a Swiss payroll company that pays me a salary based on how many hours I have worked. I am currently on an L visa with a temporary contract.
Nothing to do with expats. You can deduct certain cost for maintenance etc when you file your taxes. However, you also need to declare that house/flat for the calculation of the percentage of your wealth tax.
You can also deduct interest paid if you have a mortgage.
You should check though if it all in all does not increase your tax liability?
In the "good old days" yes you could deduct Swiss accommodation and travel costs etc from Swiss taxes in cases like yours. Usually this was done with a flat rate deduction. The rules changed six or so years ago and now it's only possible if you've been sent to Switzerland to work on a secondment for the same company e.g. BankX abroad sends you to work for a year at BankX in Switzerland.
At least, that is my understanding. You can google expatriates spesen or expatriates Verordnung. It could very well be that in some cantons you can and others you can't. In any case it's very much limited to how it used to be. Expat in this context is someone who normally lives out of CH and comes to CH specifically to work whilst maintaining a home in their home country. The rules have been tightened and for the purposes of these deductions no, you don't count as an expat.
Swiss legislation refers to the expenses he's talking about in terms of "Expatriates"
Richtlinien des kantonalen Steueramtes über die Berücksichtigung besonderer Berufskosten von vorübergehend in der Schweiz tätigen leitenden Angestellten, Spezialistinnen und Spezialisten (Expatriates)
"Revised provisions on tax deductions for expatriates will apply from start of 2016"
An entitled foreigner living abroad thinking everything is wonderful in their country and shit elsewhere, where the bloody Johney Foreigner should do things the way back home.
An expat is simply someone living in a foreign country who has no intention of staying. If they change their minds, they become immigrants. Probably economic immigrants.
This definition is often fought about between locals and foreigners in Switzerland/Europe. A French gal I know scoffed at me when I referred to myself as an "expat" once and I will never forget it. "Only you Americans think you are expats when you are not, you are just an immigrant. So snobby. You would never call an Algerian an expat."
I only referred to myself as an "expat" because well, everyone else in my situation was at the time ... her comment made me think quite a bit about the difference. I now refer to myself as an immigrant, since I have no plans to return home.
Expat:
A foreigner who is on a temporary international assignment and fully plans to move back to his or her home country or to continue on to another assignment. (Often these people come from a place of Western privilege, which is why there is a general animosity towards this term.)
Immigrant:
A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.
Immigrants can take a plane any day they want. Considering the status of my Swiss retirement funds...I'll be forced to take that plane one day. So, I immigrant, choose to do it before I'm forced too.
PS. of course, the option to be a poor and sour retiree is there, but not really an option.