How to do your tax return in Vaud

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1
Hi,

I see a lot of people asking about Tax Advisors mostly to do their tax returns. I would like to take a different approach:

Is there someone who would be willing to write up small explanation of how to do tax returns in VD? Or is there someone who could perhaps show/teach some of us how to do it (possibly even charging a fee)?

I did see Richard wrote quite a compreehensive guide for canton ZH but for VD I suppose its different and I don't understand German

How to do your tax return Kt ZH

I've tried using the VaudTax software but to be honest I am not sure I am doing it correctly and may be missing some important information.

So, is there anybody out there willing to do this? Would others be willing to participate?

thanks

2
I would like to see the same... both using Vaudtax and also filling simplified declaration when impot a la source.

3
My husband just recieved a quote to get our tax return done by the agency that did it last year (paid for by my husbands employer). They've quoted us 2800 chf .

The agent has just forwarded us the sleeve that states we have to have our tax in on the 15th of this month

We're going to attempt to use last years return and the software on the interwebs to do it ourselves this weekend. Is it overly difficult? Just wondering if there is there anything in particular we should look out for?

4
If you do not own property it is quite simple, especially if you use the online canton software.

5
We own property in Australia. Will it make it much harder?

6
If "they" don't know about it, then DON'T tell them, or you will be forever completing forms and neither claiming nor paying anything.

If "they" do know about it then you need help!

7
Peter, you can also file a full declaration when you do impot a la source. I think it allows you to get more money back.

8
Some info for those in canton de VAUD.

- Form for claiming deductions , when your taxes are calculated and paid from your employer : http://www.vd.ch/fileadmin/user_uplo...tions_2010.pdf

It's a pretty simple form :-) And a rule of thumb is that if you want to deduce something not listed in the form, it's likely that it is already declared and deduced from your monthly payment of taxes, if you have already given that info to your employer (having a spouse unemployed and untaxed, children, etc)

- Simplified guide of taxes: http://www.vd.ch/fileadmin/user_uplo...Guide_2010.pdf

- Full guide of taxes: http://www.vd.ch/fileadmin/user_uplo...01_IG_2010.pdf

Regarding owning a property, for sure it's something one can be taxed of. However, I have read the full guide linked above, and it was obviously a very complex calculations of the amount of tax to be paid. The calculation would involve a value of the property (err.... the value moves up and down, especially regarding the fact that the value of the Swiss franc moves up and down), it would involve the amount of the mortgages still to be paid, the amount of interests paid, the rent received if you have tenants, the amount of maintenance fees, cost of renovations, etc. And very likely, when the calculation is done and agreed, one would pay only tens of francs (if you still have a big mortgage) or a few hundreds (if your property is valuable without much mortgage). So, would it be worth the effort of declaring something that would require a huge amount of papers and figures translated...? I guess not... Maybe it's better to say nothing, especially if the amount of your property that you own abroad is less than, let's say, 500 000 francs, or if it is in a financial system or language that would be a tremendous hassle to get understood here. In addition, it can be only some taxes to pay, you can't get a deduction if, for instance, the interests, charges and restoration costs are more than the (potential) rent you get from it.

I own myself 25% of a nice flat of 90m2 in Helsinki (Finland) with all the papers in Finnish language, with some weird aspects of Finland, such as maintenance fee of 4 euros per square meter every month , or tax deduction of interest, or a plumb-restoration "Finnish-style" ongoing --> the Finns here could smile at my misery of owning a flat So, getting all that translated from Finnish to French, estimated from euros to CHF, doing a drill-down analysis of the costs paid to see how they should match with the figures expected by the Swiss tax-office, and paying 10 francs of yearly taxes for this flat, it would be a big bad joke.

/Paul

9
Oops, here is the proper link :

- Form for claiming deductions : http://www.vd.ch/fileadmin/user_uplo...ation_2010.pdf

The link quoted in this message, it is in fact the list of possible deductions, with a mapping between the deductions and the paragraphs of the guide

/Paul

10
Some cantons, for a small fee, allow you to postpone your return for many months. My 2009 return was completed November 2010!

11
I am trying to fill mine out as well. Only thing I can't seem to get close to what my accountant did last year was the 'deduction pour la famille' (line 725). When I do it I only get 600, last year the the form came up with 3300. I have 2 kids, and stay-at-home wife. Anyone coming up with something different? I can't see anywhere in the vaudtax software where you adjust this.

12
I am an international tax advisor and could prepare the guidelines for a fee. It can be very time consuming though and it would be more efficient to focus on the most relevant parts. What do you think?

13
are you a recognized 'fiduciaire'?

14
I think the thrust of this online community is to do things pro-bono.

15

I have two kids and mine deducts 3,100 for line 725... it works it out automatically when you put the kids in the section Enfants à charge.. Check that it dates of birth and kids are entered correctly?

16
ok tx, i checked the birthdays and status, nothing was wrong. somehow i've gone from 600 to 700 but still seems short of what i saw before.

17
Hello,

I had Contagest ( http://contagest.ch/ ) help me file my Simplified Tax Return as I am Impot a la source. It cost me circa 260 CHF. Completely worth it.

Regards, Peter

18
We had this company recommended http://www.acygest.ch/

They only communicate in french, but it's nothing that a dictionary and google translate cant fix (we communicate via email).

I've just collected the last of the documentation we need. I'll repost here to advise on how it turned out

Oh and the canton just paid us our 2009 tax return *happy dance!*

19
Hi,

For "Canton Vaud", I took a deep look at the whole system:

automatically being taken "A la source" and do nothing about it VS making a "declaration simplifiee".

To my surprise, they were hardly any difference... Especially after reading many rumors such as "they tax you much more a la source, there are many things you can deduce, etc...

So of course my case is particular, like every other employees. But the "possible deductions" as per the official documentation do not leave a lot of additional things to reduce.

(Official link:

http://www.vd.ch/fileadmin/user_uplo..._pdf/21571.pdf )

-The food away from home is already removed a la source, they remove you a random value of 3900chf, vs 3200chf if you make the "declaration simplifiee"

-The car cost, if your work is far, I have none- But I doubt it's much to reduce.

-The training/enhancement classes can be deduced but only under certains limited conditions...

All other deductions are very specific for rare situation, for example only if you put volontary money on retirement funds, etc... Probably nothing that a foreigner "a la source" would do.

One thing to note is in the payslips the calculations "monthly" often made no sense, but at the end on the "year 2011 summary" it's has all been correct and accurate to my tax rate.

So after all it seems that they are pretty accurate with the "a la source thing" (in Vaud).

Please comment if you find I was incorrect with that tax thing, because I am still surprised.

20
Here are the "possible deductions":

1)transportation costs and meals eaten away from home, *

2)premiums and contributions paid as part of the private welfare schemes OPP 3 Third pillar), **

3)redemption premiums of insurance years to a pension fund, **

4) of alimony for a divorced or separated and contributions the holder of parental authority for maintenance of minor children whose custody he, **

5) the deduction of childcare expenses for children under 14 years of age on 1 January 2011, **

6)the deduction for dependents, **

7)coefficient of the commune of residence when it is less than or equal to 44.

1) Problem is automatically "a la source" they reduce your income from 3900chf for that. While is you do the "simplified" they only reduce 3200chf for food, and X for the car.

2) It's very specific and I doubt non Swiss people has such a thing

3) Same as above

4) Ok for a divorced person

5)Ok for parents

6)Dependants, what is a dependant? A non working wife that not seems to be "a dependant" as per the tax man.

7) No idea where to find that information, but the taxman said Lausanne is not in that category.

So nothing to "declare" or remove for the "simplified declaration"...