On 16 January 2015, the Federal Department of Finance (FDF) has revised the Expatriates Ordinance and resolved to bring it into force on 1 January 2016. Following the revision of the ordinance, expatriates will be more narrowly defined as a group of people. Moreover, the revised ordinance defines the structure of individual deductions. In principle the deductions will be retained, but their acceptance should be improved by the amendments to the ordinance.
Definition of expatriates
Expatriates are defined as senior employees and specialists with special professional qualifications who are sent to Switzerland temporarily by their foreign employer. In order to be deemed an expatriate, the temporary posting is now decisive also for specialists.
Deductible costs
In future, expatriates‘ housing costs will deductible only if a dwelling abroad is permanently maintained for their own use. Moving costs are deductible only if they are directly related to the move. Private school tuition costs are deductible for minors, for children with a foreign mother tongue attending a foreign language private school, provided that public schools do not provide tuition in the child’s native language. Costs relating to food, transport and supervision before and after classes are not deductible.