Deducting a Part-Time Degree from Your Taxes in Switzerland

If you live in Switzerland and are planning a part-time degree, you will find plenty on this question and almost nothing that fits. There are cantonal information sheets, articles from fiduciary firms and notes from training providers. All of them explain the deduction using a language course or a short programme as the example.

Yet the deduction for work-related education and training costs is precisely not designed for small formats. It is the reason a multi-year degree sits differently in Switzerland than it does in Germany.

What has applied since 2016

Up to the 2016 tax period a strict line was drawn between further training and initial education. Further training was deductible, education and retraining in principle were not. That is exactly where a degree used to fail.

With the reform based on the federal act on the tax treatment of work-related education and training costs, that distinction fell away. Since then work-related education and training costs are deductible, including retraining and a return to working life. It is a general deduction, so you claim it regardless of whether you settle your other professional expenses at a flat rate or on actual figures.

The two conditions

The legislator wanted to exclude initial education, not everything that follows. So the deduction rests on two conditions, and one of them is enough.

For practically anyone studying alongside a job the first two points are therefore settled. Someone starting a bachelor at thirty alongside work is not pursuing initial education in the sense of this rule, even if it is their first academic degree.

Why I am not quoting a figure here

There is a maximum for direct federal tax and one for cantonal and communal taxes. Both are adjusted, among other things through the compensation for bracket creep, and the cantonal figures differ from one another.

That is exactly why no franc amount appears here. While preparing this article I put several sources side by side and found four different figures, all of which had been correct at some point, just in different years. Anyone copying such a number out of a blog post risks entering the wrong figure on their tax return.

What is deductible and what is not

In principle you can deduct the costs the course actually causes you and that you bear yourself. That typically includes tuition and course fees, examination fees and learning materials, and depending on cantonal practice travel and meal costs for attendance days.

Three distinctions matter more than the rest.

What your employer pays, you do not deduct. Where they cover part of it, you claim your own share. Record the split in writing before the programme starts. How to hold that conversation is set out under having your employer pay for your degree.

Initial education stays outside. In practice this affects almost only very young students without a prior qualification.

The link to your working life has to be plausible. It does not have to be narrow, a change of field or retraining is expressly covered. But it should be explainable in one sentence, and that sentence belongs in the tax return rather than in a reply to a query.

The comparison with Germany, because many people need it

Some of my clients live in Switzerland and study at a German distance university, or the other way round. For tax purposes what counts is not where the university sits but where you are liable to tax.

In Germany the matter runs through professional expenses or special expenses, with its own logic and its own distinction between initial and second education. How that works is set out under deducting distance learning from tax. If you study across the border, get your situation assessed properly once rather than mixing two systems.

One more point specific to Switzerland: grants and loans are governed cantonally and run through your canton of residence. If you live in Switzerland, start your search there rather than with federal programmes. What else carries the cost is set out under financing your studies.

Conclusion: the deduction is there, you just have to apply it correctly

1. Check the two conditions. For people studying alongside a job they are almost always met.
2. Get the current maximum from the federal overview and from your canton's guidance.
3. Collect receipts from your first semester onwards, not retrospectively in spring.
4. Separate cleanly what you pay yourself from what your employer covers.
5. If your residence and your university are in different countries, first establish where you are liable to tax.

This article sets out the rules and does not replace tax advice. Applying them to your case is a matter for your cantonal tax administration or a qualified professional.

If you live in Switzerland and want to know which programmes add up here and how a German degree stands locally, start with studying in Switzerland and CAS, DAS and MAS. For everything else, book a free initial consultation. I am based in eastern Switzerland myself.