Guide · Verrechnungssteuer
DA-1: reclaiming foreign withholding tax in Switzerland
When a foreign country taxes your dividends before they reach you, the DA-1 lets you offset part of that against your Swiss tax bill. It is a credit, not a refund — and it is only granted if the foreign tax exceeds CHF 100 in total.
That threshold is the first thing to check, because below it the right thing to do is not to file a DA-1 at all. The calculator below answers it.
Until 31.12.2026 The DA-1 for 2023 lapses at the end of this year, whatever the amount. Claim 2023 now.
Is a DA-1 worth filing?
Enter the total foreign tax withheld from your dividends across every holding and every country. It is on your broker statement, usually as "withholding tax".
Do not have the figure?
- Interactive Brokers: the Withholding Tax section of the annual Activity Statement, which lists one row per payment; add the Amount column for the year.
- DEGIRO: the withholding column of the Jahresübersicht (annual overview), beside each dividend.
Upload that year’s export and we read it — free, and it shows what is actually creditable, not just whether the minimum is met.
Yes — file the DA-1
You are above the CHF 100 minimum, so a credit can be granted. Put these amounts on the DA-1 supplementary sheet, and declare the income gross in your Wertschriftenverzeichnis rather than net.
Not filed that year yet?
The DA-1 sheet comes filled in with the e-tax statement, read from the same broker export. A statement can be made once the tax year has ended.
Checkout opens November 2026
Already filed that year without it?
The claim stays open for three years after the tax year ends, and it is posted on its own. Reading that year’s export shows the exact credit, free.
The filled-in form is not on sale yet. Tell us which years, and we write to you the day it is.
No — and filing one would be refused
You are under the CHF 100 minimum, so no credit is granted at all. The correct treatment is simpler: declare this income in your ordinary Wertschriftenverzeichnis reduced by the foreign tax that was withheld, and file no DA-1.
Exactly CHF 100 is not enough. The rule is that the total must exceed CHF 100, so CHF 100.00 is treated the same as CHF 5.
How it works
Say a US company pays you a dividend. The United States withholds tax before the money reaches your account. Switzerland then taxes the same income again as part of your ordinary return. The double-taxation treaty exists to stop that being charged twice, and the DA-1 is how you claim the relief.
What you can credit is the non-refundable part — the portion the source country keeps under the treaty. Anything withheld above the treaty rate is not a Swiss matter at all: it has to be reclaimed from that country's own tax authority.
In plain words, if you are starting from zero
You own a US share or ETF. It pays you a dividend of USD 100. Before it reaches your account the United States keeps USD 15 — that is the withholding tax, at the rate the Swiss–US treaty allows. Switzerland then taxes the full USD 100 as your income. Paying tax twice on the same money is what the treaty is meant to prevent, so Switzerland lets you set the USD 15 against your Swiss tax bill. The form that asks for it is the DA-1. "Reclaim" on this site means that credit: your Swiss tax comes down by up to the foreign tax you already paid, in the assessment, not as a cheque.
Two rules decide whether it is worth your time. The foreign tax has to exceed CHF 100 in total for the year, and the claim has to be made within three years of the end of that year. A portfolio paying CHF 3,000 of US dividends has CHF 450 withheld: that is CHF 450 off your Swiss tax, every year, for a form.
Why so much of it goes unclaimed
The DA-1 is not a total. It lists every foreign security with its gross dividend, the tax withheld and the country. A Swiss bank's eSteuerauszug carries all of that, and your tax software imports it in one click. A foreign broker issues no such statement, so without one someone has to type every line by hand — you, or whoever prepares your return.
What happens instead is well known to anyone who has seen a few returns: the securities are entered as one total for wealth and one for income, with the broker's statement attached. Cantonal guidance accepts that for the wealth and income figures. But a DA-1 cannot be built from a total, so it is simply not filed, and the credit is not requested. Reporting in the NZZ and Blick, citing industry estimates, puts the foreign withholding tax Swiss investors leave unclaimed at several billion francs a year across all forms of reclaim; VZ VermögensZentrum writes that such reclaims are seldom carried out correctly without help.
What the eCH-0196 file changes. Your cantonal software imports every position with its income and withholding, which is exactly what the DA-1 needs, and builds the sheet from the same figures — in ZHprivateTax you are asked after the import whether to carry the values into the DA-1. Nobody types a line. So the CHF 19 buys more than the hour saved on the Wertschriftenverzeichnis: it is what makes the credit get claimed at all, and it is a fraction of the CHF 85 to 300 a Swiss bank charges for the same document.
Not sure yours was ever claimed? Open the copy of your last return and look for a sheet headed DA-1. If it is not there, the credit was not requested, whoever prepared the return, and the last three years can still be claimed. How to check, year by year →
The order of operations
- Add up the foreign tax withheld across every holding and every country, for the tax year.
- If the total does not exceed CHF 100, stop. Declare the income net of that tax in your ordinary Wertschriftenverzeichnis and file no DA-1.
- If it does, declare the income gross in the Wertschriftenverzeichnis and list each position on the DA-1 sheet.
- Attach the documentation showing the income and the tax withheld.
Questions people actually ask
What is the DA-1?
A supplementary sheet to your Wertschriftenverzeichnis. Its full name is the application for crediting foreign withholding tax, and it lets you offset tax another country already took from your dividends against the Swiss tax due on that same income.
Is it a refund or a credit?
A credit, and the distinction matters. It offsets the Swiss tax due on that income, is capped at that amount, and is granted after your assessment. It is not a cheque in the post, and anyone describing it as "money back" is overselling it.
Is there a minimum?
Yes, and it catches a lot of people. If the non-refundable foreign tax does not exceed CHF 100 in total across every country, no credit is granted at all. Below that you declare the income net of the foreign tax in the ordinary Wertschriftenverzeichnis and file no DA-1.
Does the CHF 100 apply per security?
No. It is the total of column 8 on the form, summed across all your holdings and all source countries. Several small positions can clear it together even though none of them would alone.
How long do I have?
Three years. The claim lapses if it is not made within three years of the end of the tax period, which is why filing for earlier years can still be worth doing.
What about the additional US withholding, the R-US?
It almost certainly does not apply to you if you hold your US shares at a foreign broker. The additional US retention is levied only by Swiss paying agents, so with foreign custody none was withheld and there is nothing to reclaim. Claiming it anyway is reportedly the commonest reason a DA-1 is rejected.
My US dividends were taxed at 30%, not 15%. Why?
That is the statutory rate rather than the treaty rate, and it usually means the W-8BEN form at your broker is missing or has expired. Fixing it stops it happening again. The excess above the treaty rate is not a DA-1 matter — it has to be reclaimed from the US tax authority.
Why is the DA-1 so often left unclaimed?
Because it has to list every foreign security with its gross dividend, the tax withheld and the country. A Swiss bank statement carries that and the tax software imports it. A broker export does not, so someone has to type each line — and a return filed with one total and the broker statement attached is accepted for wealth and income, but a DA-1 cannot be built from a total. Reporting in the NZZ and Blick, citing industry estimates, puts unclaimed foreign withholding tax by Swiss investors at several billion francs a year across all forms of reclaim.
Will my tax software fill the DA-1 from the eCH-0196 file?
It imports every position with its income and withholding, which is exactly what the DA-1 needs. In ZHprivateTax the release notes say you are asked after the import whether to carry the values into the DA-1; other cantonal programs read the same DA-1 section of the file. You then check the sheet and file it with the return — the credit arrives with your assessment.
Someone else prepares my return. Does this apply to me?
Look at your last return for the Ergänzungsblatt DA-1. If it is not there, the credit was not requested, whoever prepared the return. Listing every foreign position is priced work at a preparer, and a return filed as one total with the broker statement attached passes without it. The eCH-0196 file gives your preparer every position, its income and its withholding without typing, and the last three tax years can still be claimed.
Do I need a bank statement to file one?
You need documentation of the income and the tax withheld. A Swiss bank supplies an eSteuerauszug; a foreign broker generally does not, which is the gap this service exists to fill.
Where the numbers come from
Everything on this page is taken from the current federal form and the ordinance behind it, not from memory. The CHF 100 minimum is Erläuterung 4 on ESTV form DA-1 605.040.03d; the treaty rates live in the annex to SR 672.201.1, which is re-issued for every tax year. Cantonal leaflets on this subject go stale — at least one still online quotes an older CHF 50 threshold.
Doing it from a foreign broker
A Swiss bank hands you an eSteuerauszug with all of this already filled in. A foreign broker does not, which is the gap this service fills: upload the export, see your figures and your position against the CHF 100 floor for free, and only pay if you want the documents.
See your own DA-1 position, free.
Upload your broker export and the reclaim figure is the first thing on the summary — before anything is charged.