🇨🇭 Geneva Tax Advisor

Your AI-powered guide to filing Geneva tax returns with GeTax — section by section, deduction by deduction.

Built from real-world filing experience. Covers single filers, married couples, dual-income households, source-taxed workers, foreign property owners, and securities investors.

When to Use This Skill

• Filing a Geneva/Swiss tax return via GeTax
• Optimizing deductions for ICC (cantonal) and IFD (federal)
• Declaring foreign property or rental income (especially France)
• Handling DA-1 withholding tax reclaims on foreign dividends
• Comparing forfaitaire vs effectifs professional expenses
• Understanding TOU/quasi-résident obligations
• Declaring cryptocurrency, bank accounts, or securities
• Any question about Geneva cantonal tax rules

⚡ Core Principles

1. Research before advising. Always look up the current GeTax guide (getax.ch/support/guide/declaration{YEAR}/) before entering a new section. Rules change yearly — never guess on tax fields.
2. Verify from source documents. Read salary certs, bank statements, and insurance attestations yourself. Never assume or hallucinate amounts.
3. Always compare deduction methods. Forfaitaire vs effectifs for professional expenses AND property maintenance. The difference can be thousands of CHF.
4. Get exchange rates right. Fortune/debt → 31.12 year-end rate. Income/interest → annual average rate. These are different numbers! Source: fidinam.com/fr/blog/cours-des-devises-suisse-pour-{YEAR} or ictax.admin.ch
5. Commune d'imposition ≠ workplace. Page de garde commune = residence. Annexe A commune = workplace.
6. Read ALL salary certificates. Don't assume details from one cert apply to another — each employer may have different deductions, source tax rates, and field 15 observations.

📋 GeTax Section Flow

Follow this order (matches GeTax navigation):

🔑 Key Decision Points

Forfaitaire vs Effectifs — Professional Expenses

⚠️ The #1 most misunderstood Geneva rule:

For ICC, meal deductions (CHF 15/day, max 3'200) are ONLY allowed if public transport commute exceeds 2 hours per day round-trip. IFD has no such restriction.

This means:

• Short commute → forfaitaire almost always wins for ICC (meals blocked)
• IFD effectifs can still win (meals allowed regardless of commute)
• You CAN split: forfaitaire for ICC + effectifs for IFD — GeTax allows separate choices

Quick decision tree:

Commute > 2h by public transport?
├── YES → Compare effectifs vs forfaitaire for BOTH ICC and IFD
└── NO  → ICC: almost certainly forfaitaire
          IFD: compare (meals 3'200 + transport vs forfaitaire min 2'000 / max 4'000)

See references/salary-and-expenses.md for the full comparison method.

Forfaitaire vs Effectifs — Property Maintenance

• ICC: NO forfait for rental properties — effective costs only
• IFD: Forfait available (10% if ≤10yr, 20% if >10yr)
• Effectifs often wins massively when you include: copro charges + management fees + taxe foncière + repairs/works

DA-1 vs RSI — Foreign Dividends

• DA-1: Foreign broker (IBKR, Fidelity, DEGIRO) — treaty rate already applied
• RSI: Swiss broker (Swissquote, UBS) — additional Swiss withholding to reclaim
• Never check both for the same security

See references/securities-and-banks.md.

🚨 Critical Gotchas (Learned the Hard Way)

Salary & Professional Expenses

1. Amat / APGM / Krankentaggeld in field 15 of salary cert → add to field 9. Easy to miss when the employer lists them separately.
2. Télétravail deduction: Near-impossible in Geneva — need a dedicated room AND employer must not provide a workspace. If in doubt, declare going to the office every day (preserves meal deduction on IFD).
3. ICC meal deduction requires >2h commute. IFD has no such condition. You can split forfaitaire ICC / effectifs IFD.
4. Source tax for BOTH spouses — check field 12 on every salary certificate. Don't forget to add them all together.

Insurance & Medical

5. ICC medical threshold is only 0.5% of net income (vs 5% for IFD) — always worth claiming even small amounts.
6. Foreign medical expenses are fully deductible — dentist abroad, UK dental insurance, pharmacy in France. No territoriality restriction.
7. Foreign health insurance premiums can be declared as medical expenses (simpler than the insurance section).
8. Glasses, contacts, eye exams — deductible as medical expenses if unreimbursed.

Property

9. Foreign property is "exempt with progression" — declared but not directly taxed in CH, affects your tax rate.
10. Copro statement ≠ rental management statement. The copropriété annual account (from syndic) often shows significantly more charges than the rental agency statement. Always request BOTH — missing the copro can mean thousands in lost deductions.
11. Loyers encaissés = gross rent the tenant paid, NOT your net after management fees. Management fees are a separate deductible expense.
12. GeTax simplified screens (e.g., "Frais et taxes effectifs") are only for Geneva properties. For foreign properties, use "Frais d'entretien effectifs" with the detailed code list.

Bank Accounts & Securities

13. Bank fees (frais bancaires) are deductible in état des titres F2. Enter as positive values — GeTax auto-deducts them from wealth income. Check every bank's annual statement for fees.
14. Wealth management fees (droits de garde, custody fees, relevé fiscal fees) are deductible against securities income.

Other

15. Exchange rates: Fortune/debt = 31.12 year-end. Income/expenses = annual average. They're DIFFERENT numbers.
16. Pillar 3b / assurance-vie: Geneva is one of few cantons allowing this deduction (couple: CHF 3'518) — don't miss it.
17. Donations to foreign charities are NOT deductible — must be Swiss-registered public utility organizations.
18. Crypto is wealth — declared in état des titres at AFC fiscal values (31.12). Capital gains from private trading are tax-free, but staking/mining income is taxable.
19. Source-taxed workers (B/L permit): If gross ≥ CHF 120k, TOU is mandatory — file full GeTax return.
20. Keep receipts 10 years for audit.

💡 Tax Optimization Playbook

Things to Check Every Year

• Compare forfaitaire vs effectifs for each spouse, for ICC and IFD separately
• Max out Pillar 3a for both spouses (higher rate if no LPP)
• Claim all unreimbursed medical expenses (ICC 0.5% threshold is very low)
• Include foreign dental/medical expenses
• Enter bank fees from every account
• Request copro statement AND rental management statement for properties
• Check for LPP buyback opportunity (pension gap)

Planning Ahead (Next Year)

• Pillar 3a for non-LPP spouse: Qualifies at higher rate (20% net income, max 36'288)
• Pillar 3b / assurance-vie: Even a cheap policy pays for itself with the 3'518 couple deduction
• LPP buyback (rachat): The most powerful deduction in Swiss tax — unlimited up to pension gap, fully deductible at marginal rate (35-40% back)
• Starting 2026: Retroactive 3a contributions allowed for missed years from 2025+
• Time expensive medical/dental work in years when you'll exceed the 0.5% ICC threshold

📚 Reference Files

🔗 Official Resources