On 17 March 2021, the FTA published the amendment to Art. 5a of the Professional Costs Ordinance. On the one hand, the current flat rate will be regulated in the Professional Costs Ordinance from 1 January 2022, and on the other hand, the flat rate will now take into account commuting costs and will be increased from 0.8% to 0.9% per month (or from 9.6% to 10.8% per year) for this purpose.
Under the application of the new flat rate, the FABI offset in taxable income (70 centimes per kilometre) with the simultaneous deduction of the corresponding professional expenses (for the Confederation, a maximum of CHF 3,000 for the commute to work) no longer applies. Furthermore, the obligation to declare the external service component in the salary statement no longer applies.
The increase in the private share and the abolition of the travel expenses deduction will on average compensate for the offsets previously made in direct federal tax. There will be slight additional revenue from value added tax and social insurance. Cantons that adopt the changes and allow a travel expenses deduction of more than CHF 3,000 would also see slight additional revenue.
The effective accounting by means of a journey booklet remains possible.
With the amendment to the ordinance, the FDF is fulfilling a motion of the Commission for Transport and Telecommunications (KVF-S, 17.3631), which was adopted by the Federal Assembly (see also our article of 2 June 2018). The explanations on the implementation of the motion are available here.
The March 17, 2021 media release is available here.
