An online application of the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) will be available for refund applications for Swiss withholding tax by German residents from 31 January 2020.
According to the FTA press release of 14 January 2020, the application is available on the FTA website (www.estv.admin.ch). It applies to reimbursement requests from Germany for income due from 1 January 2020 and replaces Form 85, which is now only valid for reimbursement requests for income due by 31 December 2019.
The application reduces the sources of error during submission and speeds up the refund process. It can also be used by trustees and banks delegated for this purpose. After a one-time registration, the refund application can be entered electronically and attachments can be uploaded directly.
For legal reasons it is still necessary to print out the application and have it signed by the responsible German tax office. The signed application must be sent to the FTA by post. Applications entered via the online application are not considered submitted until the printed application is legally signed and received by the FTA in due time.
