Your tax assessment has just arrived: you have 30 days
A tax assessment notice is not just a confirmation. It is a decision, and the deadline to challenge it is short. What to check before filing it away.
Many people open their tax assessment, look at the amount and file it away. That is a pity: this document is not a confirmation of what you declared, it is a decision. The tax office may have corrected your figures, refused a deduction or changed its amount.
The three lines to check first
- Your taxable income. Compare it with what you declared. A difference means a deduction was refused or income was added.
- Your deductions. Check line by line: pillar 3a, childcare costs, travel costs, insurance premiums. That is where corrections most often go unnoticed.
- Your taxable wealth. A forgotten account, a revised property valuation, a surrender value carried over wrongly: differences slip in easily.
If an amount has been corrected, the tax office usually says so in a note. Read it: that is what tells you why.
The deadline: 30 days, and it cannot be extended
You have 30 days from notification to lodge an objection. This deadline applies to cantonal, municipal and federal tax. It is written on the assessment itself.
It is a strict deadline: once it has passed, the assessment becomes final, even if it is wrong. It can only be recovered by showing a serious impediment — illness, a prolonged absence — and that remains the exception.
The objection must be in writing. If you are challenging an assessment made at the tax office's discretion, it must also be reasoned and accompanied by the supporting documents.
And if everything is correct?
Then file it away, but keep the assessment: it will be the starting point for next year's return.
We can check it for you
A check takes little time when you know where to look. If a difference appears, we draft the objection and follow the procedure through to the new decision.
Send us your assessment, or call us on +41 26 303 36 69 — but don't let the 30 days run out.