Under the “Guidance on how to establish the salary certificate” (available in French and German only) and FTA Circular no. 37, the employer is required to produce an annex to the salary certificate for an employee participation plan. This must detail the amounts appearing under cipher 5 on the salary certificate as well as new grants that not necessarily generate taxable income (but need to be declared in the tax return as pro memoria).
Since 2013, certain pilot cantons have been developing a format that could be suitable to become the Swiss standard. However, yet there is no set format required at federal level. Nevertheless, at cantonal level – and in particular in the canton of Vaud, which took part in the pilot – these annexes must be produced in a predefined format and contain specific information.
The canton of Vaud has published models in French for some years now (the most recent, “Swissdec”, versions of which are dated 2019) that are binding for employers. These annexes must also be transmitted in Excel format and via a specific platform so that they can be verified and validated by the cantonal tax authorities.
The Canton of Zurich has also published templates in Excel format and in German, but for the time being is not insisting on their use.
Circular No. 37 “Taxation of employee participations” is currently being revised. The new declaration templates developed by the pilot cantons are appended to the new version of the circular as examples, but they are not binding and cantons can choose whether to require their use.
Transmission via Swissdec
Swissdec has published the technical details for the electronic transfer of annexes via ELM 5.0 this year, along with model annexes in PDF format based on the Excel templates used by Vaud and Zurich. However, a little patience is required until payroll programs or other software offering this means of transmission will be available on the market.
PwC is here to support
Since taxation of employee share options is one of our specialties, we are happy to respond to all your questions, particularly in relation to the treatment of these employee participation programs in international situations. Those calculations can be very complex and require your undivided attention.
If needed, we can also produce these annexes for you or help you put to create them yourself. This service is also offered to you if your payroll isn’t being outsourced to PwC.
We also suggest that you visit our dedicated website on salary certificates.
