What this is about
People posted to Switzerland for a few years often pay twice: the home abroad keeps running, and a second one is added here. Swiss tax law has a deduction built for exactly that — the special professional expenses of expatriates. How it works in general is set out in our guide to the deduction. This article is about the canton of Zurich.
Who counts as an expatriate
Before the cantonal level matters at all, the basic condition has to be met. Art. 1 para. 1 ExpaV covers two groups: managers and specialists with particular professional qualifications who are posted to Switzerland temporarily by their foreign employer. Not everyone who comes to Switzerland on a fixed-term basis meets that test.
What "temporary" means is set out in Art. 1 para. 2 ExpaV: employment limited to a maximum of five years. And under Art. 1 para. 3 ExpaV the deduction falls away in any case where fixed-term employment is replaced by permanent employment — even if the five years have not been used up.
The legal basis in Zurich
For cantonal and communal tax, Art. 26 para. 1 lit. c of the cantonal tax act applies — the provision on the other costs required to carry out your profession. The special professional expenses of expatriates are given shape by the federal Expatriates Ordinance, which applies directly to federal direct tax.
Zurich publishes its own practice: guidelines of the cantonal tax office on expatriates (ZStB 26.2, formerly 17/301) (issued 17 February 2021, applicable from tax period 2021). You can therefore read in advance how the canton reviews the deduction.
How Zurich handles the deduction
Zurich is among the most clearly documented cantons. The guideline covers the personal scope, housing costs, relocation and schooling costs, the treatment of employer reimbursements and the flat rate of CHF 1,500 per month. Because Zurich has published its own practice on Art. 26 para. 1 lit. c of the cantonal tax act, no indirect reasoning is needed here — the canton states how it handles the deduction.
Example: a full year
A division head is posted to Zurich for three years and rents a 3.5-room apartment: CHF 4,200 net rent plus CHF 260 utilities. She keeps her home abroad and does not rent it out.
- Effective housing costs: CHF 4,200 × 12 = CHF 50,400, provided the rent is accepted as reasonable
- Not deductible: CHF 260 × 12 = CHF 3,120 of utilities
- Flat rate: CHF 18,000 — covering housing, relocation and travel together
Zurich speaks of reasonable housing costs but, unlike Basel-Stadt, publishes no fixed franc or percentage limit. For the comparison with the flat rate, what counts is the total of effectively deductible costs, not the monthly rent alone.
What to watch for in Zurich
Zurich regulates tax at source and ordinary assessment differently and says so expressly. Under tax at source, the CHF 1,500 flat rate can already be applied to the relevant gross salary — for that you must prove to your employer that the home abroad is kept available for your own use. Higher effective costs then run through the applicable assessment procedure.
Regardless of canton, it is almost always the same points that cost people the deduction: gross rent claimed instead of net rent, the wrong provision cited, rate determination overlooked when arriving or leaving mid-year, or the home abroad left undocumented. The details are in our guide to the deduction, and what applies to travel and relocation costs is in the article on those.
Who carried the costs is decisive
What matters is who bears the costs economically and how any employer reimbursement is treated for tax purposes. An actual reimbursement against receipts generally rules out an additional deduction. Where a lump sum is paid and added to taxable gross salary in the salary statement, a deduction remains possible.
Every case is different — the potential usually is not
Whether and how much you can deduct depends on your situation: how the assignment is set up, your employment contract, your housing situation abroad, and who actually carried the costs. This article sets out the principles and a simplified example; it does not replace individual advice. What does generalise: on fixed-term assignments, deductions are regularly left on the table — a second look is almost always worth it.