Marriage, separation, cohabiting: 31 December decides everything
For tax purposes, your family situation on the last day of the year applies to the whole year. Getting married on 30 December counts as twelve months of marriage.
It is one of the least known rules, and one of the heaviest in its consequences: the tax office looks at your situation on 31 December and applies it to the whole year just ended.
You get married
You are taxed jointly for the whole year, even if the wedding took place on 30 December. Both incomes are added together, and you file a single return.
Adding the incomes pushes up the rate — that is mechanical, tax is progressive. Fribourg corrects this effect through splitting: the rate applied to the couple is the one corresponding to half of the total income. In practice, the canton is among those that treat married couples best.
You separate
Same logic, the other way round: each is taxed separately for the whole year, provided the separation is effective on 31 December. Two returns, two files, two situations to rebuild.
It is often the trickiest year to prepare, because items that were joint until then have to be split.
You live together without being married
Cohabiting partners are always taxed separately: incomes are never added together. On the other hand, everything to do with children — the deduction, the applicable scale — depends on parental authority and on who pays or receives what. That is where amounts get lost, almost always for want of knowing.
Maintenance payments
The rule is worth knowing: what one pays, the other declares. But as soon as the child reaches the age of majority, everything changes — the payment stops being deductible for the payer, and stops being taxable for the recipient. The paying parent then moves to a different relief.
Many tax returns carry on for years on the old pattern.
A year in which your situation changes deserves a closer look
Marriage, separation, a birth, a child leaving home: these are exactly the years when mistakes are made, and when getting it right pays off most.
Call us on +41 26 303 36 69.