If you live in the canton of Zurich and file a tax return, your property abroad belongs in it. Answer a few questions and get the exact number for every line of the form, explained in your language.
CHF 49.95 per apartment. No account. Your data stays in your browser.
Liegenschaftenverzeichnis
Steuererklärung 2025
Kanton Zürich
a notional rent, not real money
70% of what you paid
Anyone who files a tax return in Zurich declares income and assets worldwide. That includes an apartment in Valencia, Berlin or Kyiv, even if nobody lives there.
Swiss law taxes real estate only in the country where it stands, and Switzerland's tax treaties say the same. Zurich removes the apartment from your taxable wealth and income.
The value and a notional rent are used to set your rate. For a typical apartment the effect is small. Leaving the apartment out is what gets expensive: back taxes, interest and a fine.
Country, city, size, what you paid or what it is worth, and how it is used today: kept for yourself, lived in by family, rented out, or not usable.
Tax value at 70% of the price. Notional rent at 4.25% for apartments or 3.5% for houses. The 20% flat deduction for maintenance. All converted to francs.
The result mirrors the Zurich property form line by line, with a ready German note for the remarks field. Type it into ZHprivateTax or the paper form.
A sheet you can print or save as PDF and keep with your tax documents.
Liegenschaften im Ausland, Steuerperiode 2025: 1. Stockwerkeigentum in Valencia, Carrer de Colón 27, Spanien. Steuerwert CHF 78'120: 70% des Kaufpreises von EUR 120'000 (Kurs 0.93). Die Liegenschaft steht zur eigenen Verfügung. Eigenmietwert: 4,25% des Steuerwerts. Grundstücke im Ausland sind von der schweizerischen Steuerpflicht ausgenommen (Art. 6 Abs. 1 DBG); das Besteuerungsrecht liegt beim Belegenheitsstaat. Wir bitten um Ausscheidung ins Ausland; die Werte sind nur satzbestimmend zu berücksichtigen. Unterhaltskosten: Pauschalabzug 20%.
| Option | Cost | Effort | What you end up with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leave the apartment out | Nothing today | None | If it comes up later: back taxes for up to 10 years, interest and a fine |
| Hire a tax adviser | Several hundred francs, every year | Appointments and documents, often only in German | The right choice for complicated cases |
| Dix.Tax | CHF 49.95 per apartment the first time, less in later years | About 10 minutes | Correct numbers for standard cases, explained in your language |
I am Aleksej Dix. I file my taxes in Switzerland and own several apartments abroad. The first time they had to go into my tax return, I paid for the answers myself: advisers, evenings with German directives, and a lot of second guessing.
The rules turned out to be simple once somebody explains them. Many people in Switzerland own a home in another country and face the same form, often in a language that is not their own. Dix.Tax puts what I learned into ten minutes.
Aleksej DixFounder of Dix.Tax
No. Swiss law taxes real estate only in the country where it stands, and Switzerland's tax treaties say the same. Zurich still wants to see the apartment because your total wealth and income decide which tax rate applies to the part that is taxable in Switzerland. Tax people call this satzbestimmend, meaning it counts for the rate only.
No. The other country taxes the property and any rent from it. Switzerland does not tax them again, it only uses them to set the rate on your Swiss income and wealth. Whatever you owe abroad, for example German tax on rent (Anlage V) or the Spanish non-resident tax (Modelo 210), is a separate filing in that country.
CHF 49.95 per apartment for your first declaration. In the following years it costs less, because your apartment is already set up. A tax adviser usually charges several hundred francs for the same work, every year.
People taxed at source (Quellensteuer), for example with a B permit or protection status S, usually do not file. You must file if you have other income of CHF 3'000 or more per year, taxable wealth of CHF 80'000 or more (CHF 160'000 for married couples), or a gross salary of CHF 120'000 or more. With status S you also become fully taxable once you have lived in Switzerland for more than two years without interruption and your life is centred here. And if your municipality sent you a tax return, you have to complete it in any case. If you are unsure, ask your Gemeindesteueramt.
Zurich practice for property abroad is 70% of the purchase price, converted to francs. If there was no purchase price, for example because the apartment was inherited or given to you, use a realistic estimate of what it would sell for and take 70% of that. Keep whatever supports your number: the purchase contract, a land register extract, or comparable listings.
You still list it, because you still own it. Use a value that reflects reality, and do not declare any notional rent if the apartment really cannot be used, for example after war damage or a fire, or because it is in an area you cannot reach. The tool writes a short German explanation for the remarks field. Keep photos, official reports or news coverage in case the tax office asks.
It is not rent, but Zurich treats an apartment used by you or your relatives free of charge as used by yourself. That means a notional rent (Eigenmietwert) of 4.25% of the tax value applies. It affects your rate only.
It is a notional income: what you could earn if you rented out a home you keep for yourself. Swiss voters decided on 28 September 2025 to abolish it, and the Federal Council set 1 January 2029 as the start date. Up to and including tax year 2028 it still has to be declared.
Once in your life you can correct this without a fine through a voluntary disclosure (straflose Selbstanzeige), as long as the tax office has not found out on its own. You pay the missing tax for up to ten years plus interest, which for a foreign apartment is usually a small amount. Contact the cantonal tax office or an adviser before you file, and do not simply start listing the apartment without explanation.
Once you are fully taxable in Switzerland, foreign accounts belong in the securities and accounts list (Wertschriftenverzeichnis) with the balance on 31 December and the interest earned. This tool only covers real estate.
Social assistance, asylum support and supplementary benefits follow their own rules and are handled by a different office. This tool only covers the tax return. Tell your caseworker about the property truthfully and ask how it is treated in your municipality.
In your browser and nowhere else. Nothing you type is sent to a server, there is no account and no tracking. You can delete everything with one click.
Have the purchase price and the size of the apartment ready. That is all you need.