Switzerland (Canton Zürich) Career-Oriented Further Education and Training Costs Schedule (Berufsorientierte Aus- und Weiterbildungskosten 2025)

This file is the source-review record for this document version, per the manual-source-review-v1 practice.

Current claim

• status: draft
• verification.method: manual-source-review-v1
• verification.lastVerifiedAt: 2026-07-09
• maturity.level: structural-reference

Why this cycle picked up Aus- und Weiterbildung

This is the recurring "GovSchema Standard Research" cycle (GOV-1882). The prior cycle (GOV-1875/GOV-1878), which authored Versicherungsprämien (ch/zh/sta/versicherungspraemien), left four remaining CH-ZH companion schedules as an open backlog list (Aus- und Weiterbildung, Liegenschaftenverzeichnis, Schuldenverzeichnis, Hilfsblatt A/B/G) and specifically flagged Aus- und Weiterbildung as the next candidate to screen. This cycle confirms it is tractable: a genuine, current, unauthenticated, flat (non-AcroForm) 1-page PDF, sourced from the same zh.ch tax-forms listing as its four siblings. CATALOG.md is updated by this cycle to move Aus- und Weiterbildung from the open list to closed, leaving three remaining companion schedules (Liegenschaftenverzeichnis, Schuldenverzeichnis, Hilfsblatt A/B/G).

Sources examined

• Document (id, version): ch/zh/sta/aus-und-weiterbildungskosten / 1.0.0
• Spec version: GovSchema 0.3.0
• Authority: Kanton Zürich — Finanzdirektion, Kantonales Steueramt Zürich (the same authority as the main return and its four other companion schedules; this form's own printed issuer is also "StA Form.", here "367").
• Primary source: https://www.zh.ch/content/dam/zhweb/bilder-dokumente/themen/steuern-finanzen/steuern/natuerlichepersonen/2025/est-formulare/367%20Aus-%20und%20Weiterbildung%20ZH%202025%20HA%20DEF.pdf — "StA Form. 367 (2024) 12.25 — Berufsorientierte Aus- und Weiterbildungskosten 2025," fetched directly (HTTP 200, Content-Type: application/pdf, %PDF-1.4, 46,013 bytes, no /Encrypt, no login/CAPTCHA/WAF gate) from the same tax-return landing page GOV-1847/GOV-1854/GOV-1868/GOV-1875 used, https://www.zh.ch/de/steuern-finanzen/steuern/steuern-natuerliche-personen/steuererklaerung-natuerliche-personen.html, which links this form directly next to the main return and its other companion schedules under the 2025 "est-formulare" listing. The link text and filename ("367 Aus- und Weiterbildung ZH 2025 HA DEF.pdf") match the main return's own reference to this schedule by name at line 292 (Ziffer 16.2).
• A note on the form's own print date. Like its four CH-ZH sibling companion schedules, this form's footer prints "StA Form. 367 (2024) 12.25" even though its own cover page is titled "Berufsorientierte Aus- und Weiterbildungskosten" for the 2025 tax year — the printed template was evidently last revised in 2024 and reused for the 2025 tax year. Disclosed as an observed detail, not treated as a discrepancy.
• Companion Wegleitung, examined for rate confirmation and a worked specimen: https://www.zh.ch/content/dam/zhweb/bilder-dokumente/themen/steuern-finanzen/steuern/natuerlichepersonen/2025/est-wegleitungen/305_Wegleitung_ZH_2025_HA%20bf%20DEF.pdf — the same 40-page "Wegleitung zur Steuererklärung 2025" GOV-1847/GOV-1868/GOV-1875 used, fetched the same way (HTTP 200, %PDF-1.7, 1,497,565 bytes). Its own explanatory section ("Berufsorientierte Aus- und Weiterbildungskosten [Ziffer 16.2]") restates, in prose, the same two caps this form's own two sections already print ("... bis zum Gesamtbetrag von CHF 12'400 bei der Staatssteuer bzw. CHF 13'000 bei der Bundessteuer ..."), so no separate Wegleitung lookup was required to fill in a missing figure. It also states the statutory eligibility criterion for this deduction (a Sekundarstufe II qualification already held, or the taxpayer has turned 20, and the costs are not those of a first Sekundarstufe II qualification) — disclosed below as an explicit scope decision, since it has no corresponding field on the form itself.
• No official worked specimen of this exact form was found — unlike the two prior companion-schedule cycles. Berufsauslagen (GOV-1868) and Versicherungsprämien (GOV-1875) each found their own form's official worked specimen on Wegleitung PDF page 36 (the printed page footer reads "36," no page-index offset in this PDF). This cycle checked that same page, the page immediately after it, and the page carrying this form's own explanatory prose:
  • PDF page 16 (the page containing the "Berufsorientierte Aus- und Weiterbildungskosten [Ziffer 16.2]" explanatory prose quoted above) carries, immediately below that prose, the Wegleitung's own blank reference facsimile of this exact form (box codes 2900/2903, 2901/2904, 2902/2905, 2920/2921 (Staatssteuer), 2920/2921 (Bundessteuer), and 292 — identical to the live form's own layout, confirming the box numbering read off the live PDF above) — but every entry position on it is the same box-outline rendering artifact ("13211" and its permutations) observed on all four CH-ZH sibling forms' own blank boxes, not an actual transcribed value. This page illustrates the form's own printed structure inline with its explanatory text, not a filled specimen — a different placement from Berufsauslagen/Versicherungsprämien, whose own inline facsimiles happen to sit on the same page as a later worked example.
  • PDF page 36 carries only the Berufsauslagen and Versicherungsprämien worked specimens (confirmed by a full-text scan of the page: no "367," "2900," or "Weiterbildung" token appears on it) — no Form 367 specimen of any kind sits on this page.
  • PDF page 37 carries the Wegleitung's own fully worked specimen of the main return's own page 3 ("Abzüge 2025") summary for the "Muster-Meister Felix und Regula" household — and it does show real, transcribed values for several other companion schedules' transfer lines: line 220 (11.1, Berufsauslagen Person 1) = CHF 4'815 state / CHF 4'815 federal, matching Berufsauslagen's (GOV-1868) own specimen; line 270 (15, Versicherungsprämien) = CHF 8'400 state / CHF 5'100 federal, matching Versicherungsprämien's (GOV-1875) own specimen; line 260 (14.1, pillar 3a) = CHF 7'258 both columns. A coordinate-level re-check (pdfjs-dist per-item (x, y)) of line 292 (16.2, this schedule's own transfer line, printed at y≈507.7) on that same page found only the box-outline artifact at both the Staatssteuer x-position (≈282.6, close to the "Staatssteuer" column header's own x≈278.8) and the Bundessteuer x-position (≈352.9, close to "Bundessteuer"'s own x≈348.5) — i.e. this line is deliberately left blank in the Wegleitung's own official specimen; the Muster-Meister household claimed no further-education deduction that year.
  • Per the issue's own instruction for this contingency, this schema's field logic and statutory caps were instead sourced directly from the live form's own printed text (cross-checked against the Wegleitung's prose restatement of the same two caps), and the worked mock-data example below was constructed independently by this cycle's author, with every arithmetic step hand-recomputed, rather than copied from or matched against any government-published specimen.
• Extraction method. pdfjs-dist (v3.11.174, legacy/build/pdf.js) text extraction with full (x, y) coordinates per text item, plus a pdf-lib AcroForm check (form.getFields()) and a pdfjs-dist per-page annotation check (page.getAnnotations(), filtered to subtype === 'Widget'). Both checks returned zero fillable widgets on this form's single page — the same flat, non-AcroForm, print/reference-facsimile shape as its four CH-ZH sibling schemas. Coordinate-based extraction was essential to establish the row/column layout correctly:
  • the box codes for each row are printed as a pair separated by a slash (e.g. "2900 / 2903"), the first number at x≈338.4 and the second at x≈360.9, immediately to the left of two separate entry-box positions at x≈404 (Person 1's amount column) and x≈498 (Person 2's amount column) — confirming this form places both persons side-by-side on one page, unlike Berufsauslagen's two separate physical pages;
  • the three raw-cost rows (Total der Kosten / Beitrag Arbeitgeber oder weiterer Stellen / Selbstgetragene Kosten, box codes 2900-2905) sit above both the "Staatssteuer" and "Bundessteuer" section headers' own y-positions, confirming these three lines are single, non-tax-column -split figures shared by both tax columns — the same pattern Versicherungsprämien's own Section A used;
  • only the "Zulässiger Abzug" (allowed-deduction) row and the final total are printed twice, once under each section header, each with its own cap (CHF 12'400 under "Staatssteuer," CHF 13'000 under "Bundessteuer") — confirming the tax-column split applies only to the capped, allowed -deduction stage, not to the raw cost inputs;
  • the "Beitrag Arbeitgeber..." row prints a minus sign ("–") immediately before each person's amount box, confirming it is subtracted from the "Total der Kosten" row to produce "Selbstgetragene Kosten," for both Person 1 and Person 2 independently;
  • the "Zulässiger Abzug" row's own label prints "max. je CHF 12'400"/ "max. je CHF 13'000" — "je" ("each") — confirming the cap applies individually to each person's own self-borne cost, not to the two persons' combined total, consistent with the two separate amount-box positions (Person 1, Person 2) printed on that same row;
  • the summary row beneath each "Zulässiger Abzug" row prints "2920 +" followed directly by a single combined amount box, then a further row with the code "292" beside a second box holding the same combined figure, immediately above the "▸ Zu übertragen in die Steuererklärung Seite 3 Ziffer 16.2" arrow-and-caption; the same abbreviated "2920 +" wording (without printing "2921" as text) appears identically in the Wegleitung's own blank facsimile of this form (PDF page 16), confirming it is the form's own genuine printed shorthand for "the sum of boxes 2920 and 2921," not an extraction artifact — modelled in this schema as a single combined total field per tax column (see the field-by-field mapping below).
• Retrieved / reviewed: 2026-07-09.
• Reviewer: GovSchema Engineering (Standards Engineer — initial authoring source review).

Scope decision: a single shared household header, but per-person cost/deduction columns on one page

Like Versicherungsprämien (a single-page, single-header form) but unlike Berufsauslagen (two separate physical pages, one header each), this form has one Name/Vorname/AHVN13/Gemeinde header block feeding a two-column body where Person 1 and Person 2 each have their own cost figures side by side. This schema follows the form's own layout exactly: one set of header fields (ahvn13RemainingDigits, gemeinde, name, vorname), and Person1/ Person2-suffixed fields for every cost and deduction line.

Scope decision: the raw cost lines (2900-2905) are not split by tax column; only the capped deduction and final total are

Section-by-section coordinate inspection (see above) confirms totalEducationCostsPersonX, employerOrThirdPartyContributionPersonX, and selfBorneCostsPersonX are each a single figure used identically against both the state-tax and federal-tax caps — the same treatment Versicherungsprämien gave its own Section A (bezahlte Prämien/Zinsen). Only allowedDeductionPersonXStateTax/FederalTax and the two final totalFurtherEducationDeductionStateTax/FederalTax fields differ by tax column, because only the statutory cap itself differs (CHF 12'400 vs. CHF 13'000).

Scope decision: validation.maximum (not validation.enum) on the four allowed-deduction fields

Unlike Versicherungsprämien's Section B lookup fields (which print exactly two discrete alternative figures depending on marital status and pillar 2/3a contributions, correctly modelled with enum), this form's cap is a single, continuous ceiling applied to a genuinely variable self-borne cost (selfBorneCostsPersonX) — any value from CHF 0 up to the cap is a valid, literal transcription of "the lower of the self-borne cost or the cap," not a choice between two fixed printed numbers. validation.minimum: 0, validation.maximum: 12400 (state) / 13000 (federal) is the correct constraint here, the same pattern Berufsauslagen used for its own several capped lines (e.g. the CHF 5'200/CHF 3'300 commuting-cost caps).

Scope decision: no eligibility-criterion field or course-detail fields, since none are printed on the form

The Wegleitung's own explanatory prose states a statutory eligibility test (a Sekundarstufe II qualification already held, or the taxpayer has turned 20 years old, and the costs claimed are not those of a first Sekundarstufe II qualification) — but this form itself has no corresponding checkbox, and neither the form nor its Wegleitung ask the filer to name the institution, programme, or dates on this specific schedule (unlike, for instance, Berufsauslagen's own private-vehicle-use justification checkboxes, which have direct on-form counterparts at lines 2041-2044). Consistent with this registry's general preference against inventing fields the source form itself does not print, no such field is added; the eligibility rule and absence of any supporting-document requirement are instead disclosed here and in the schema's own top-level description.

Scope decision: totalFurtherEducationDeductionStateTax/FederalTax (292) are required: true; the per-person lines are not

The form prints exactly one line explicitly labelled as the schedule's own final, always-completed total transferred onward ("Total," box code 292, captioned "▸ Zu übertragen in die Steuererklärung Seite 3 Ziffer 16.2"), mirroring the precedent set by every other CH-ZH companion schedule authored to date (each schedule's own single transferring total, or — for Versicherungsprämien's three distinct labelled totals — every total a filer completes regardless of how many preceding lines are zero). The intermediate per-person cost and capped-deduction lines are not required, since a filer with only one active person (e.g. a single filer, or a couple where only one spouse incurred further-education costs) legitimately leaves the other person's lines entirely blank.

Field-by-field source mapping

• Header (single household entry) → ahvn13RemainingDigits, gemeinde, name, vorname.
• Total der Kosten / Beitrag Arbeitgeber oder weiterer Stellen / Selbstgetragene Kosten (lines 2900-2905) → totalEducationCostsPerson1/Person2, employerOrThirdPartyContributionPerson1/Person2, selfBorneCostsPerson1/Person2.
• Zulässiger Abzug (lines 2920/2921, Staatssteuer and Bundessteuer sections) → allowedDeductionPerson1StateTax/Person2StateTax, allowedDeductionPerson1FederalTax/Person2FederalTax.
• Total (line 292) → totalFurtherEducationDeductionStateTax/ FederalTax, transferring onto the main return's own furtherEducationCostsStateTax/FederalTax fields (Ziffer 16.2).

Mock-data test run

Per the issue's phase-3 instruction to test-run the schema with valid mock data, a one-off Node.js script (not committed to the repo) loaded conformance/ch/zh/sta/aus-und-weiterbildungskosten/1.0.0/application-packet.json against schema.json and checked:

`` OK Both required fields present (totalFurtherEducationDeductionStateTax, totalFurtherEducationDeductionFederalTax) OK allowedDeductionPerson1StateTax (12400) holds within [0, 12400] OK allowedDeductionPerson1FederalTax (13000) holds within [0, 13000] OK No unknown keys present in the mock data beyond this schema's own 11 field names actually used (Person 2's 5 fields correctly omitted, matching the single-filer scenario) OK Arithmetic: 14500 - 1500 = 13000 (selfBorneCostsPerson1) OK Arithmetic: min(13000, 12400) = 12400 (allowedDeductionPerson1StateTax — the state-tax cap binds, since self-borne cost (13000) exceeds it) OK Arithmetic: min(13000, 13000) = 13000 (allowedDeductionPerson1FederalTax — exactly at the federal-tax cap, which does not bind below the self-borne cost) OK Arithmetic: 12400 + 0 = 12400 (totalFurtherEducationDeductionStateTax, Person 2 absent/zero) OK Arithmetic: 13000 + 0 = 13000 (totalFurtherEducationDeductionFederalTax, Person 2 absent/zero) ``

The mock scenario (fabricated, not copied from any official specimen — none exists for this exact form, see above) models a single filer in Uster ("Reto Baumgartner") who completed a career-oriented further-education programme in 2025 costing CHF 14'500 in total (totalEducationCostsPerson1), of which his employer contributed CHF 1'500 (employerOrThirdPartyContributionPerson1), leaving a self-borne cost of CHF 13'000 (selfBorneCostsPerson1) — a figure chosen deliberately to exceed the CHF 12'400 state-tax cap while sitting exactly at the CHF 13'000 federal-tax cap, exercising both the "cap binds" and "cap does not bind" arithmetic paths in a single example. Person 2's fields are omitted entirely, consistent with Berufsauslagen's own single-filer mock-data precedent (conformance/ch/zh/sta/berufsauslagen/1.0.0/application-packet.json).

Both registry validators were run against the schema document itself and pass:

``` $ node tools/validate.mjs registry/ch/zh/sta/aus-und-weiterbildungskosten/1.0.0/schema.json ok registry/ch/zh/sta/aus-und-weiterbildungskosten/1.0.0/schema.json

1/1 document(s) passed.

$ node tools/validate-ajv.mjs registry/ch/zh/sta/aus-und-weiterbildungskosten/1.0.0/schema.json ok registry/ch/zh/sta/aus-und-weiterbildungskosten/1.0.0/schema.json [v0.3]

1/1 document(s) validated against the meta-schema (ajv 2020-12).

$ node tools/verify-sources.mjs registry/ch/zh/sta/aus-und-weiterbildungskosten/1.0.0 verify-sources: checking 1 schema version directory...

verify-sources: 1 directory, 4 URLs checked, 0 warning(s), 0 allowlisted, all clear. ```

What is NOT modelled (out of scope), and why

• The underlying course/programme details (institution, subject, dates) that justify the claimed cost — neither this form nor its Wegleitung ask for them to be entered on this schedule itself; only the resulting CHF figures are requested.
• The statutory eligibility criterion (a Sekundarstufe II qualification already held, or age 20 completed, and the costs are not those of a first Sekundarstufe II qualification) — stated only as a filing rule in the Wegleitung's own prose, with no corresponding checkbox or field printed on the form itself. See the dedicated scope-decision section above.
• Any supporting-evidence document. Neither this form nor the Wegleitung's own Ziffer-16.2 explanatory section request a receipt, certificate, or itemized statement to be filed alongside this schedule's own figures (unlike Berufsauslagen, which gates several documents[] entries on its own itemized-actual-cost lines). The main return's own documents[] array already gates this form itself (furtherEducationForm, required when either transferred total is greater than 0) — this schedule does not duplicate that gate against itself. Accordingly this schema omits the documents[] array entirely (permitted, since it is not a required top-level member).
• The office-only fields — none observed on this form's single page.

Judgment calls

1. Raw cost lines (2900-2905) modelled as single, non-tax-column-split fields, while the allowed-deduction and total lines are modelled with a state/federal pair. This mirrors the form's own physical layout exactly and the Wegleitung's own confirmation that only the deduction cap differs by tax column. See the dedicated scope-decision section above.
2. validation.maximum (not validation.enum) on the four allowed -deduction fields. A continuous cap applied to a genuinely variable self-borne cost, not a discrete lookup table. See the dedicated scope-decision section above.
3. No eligibility-criterion or course-detail field, consistent with this registry's general preference against inventing fields the source form itself does not print. See the dedicated scope-decision section above.
4. totalFurtherEducationDeductionStateTax/FederalTax (292) are required: true; the per-person lines are not, extending the established CH-ZH companion-schedule precedent of requiring only each form's own final, always-completed transfer total(s). See the dedicated scope-decision section above.
5. No crossFieldValidation enforcing the printed arithmetic (e.g. selfBorneCostsPerson1 === totalEducationCostsPerson1 - employerOrThirdPartyContributionPerson1, or the min()/cap logic) is added, consistent with this registry's general preference against inventing derived-value enforcement beyond what the source form itself states as a hard, universally-applicable rule — the same treatment every other CH-ZH companion schedule has given its own arithmetic lines.
6. Amounts are modelled as plain number fields in whole CHF ("CHF ohne Rappen," printed on the form's own header), consistent with this registry's convention elsewhere of not adding a separate sub-unit field.
7. jurisdiction.level is subnational with subdivision: "CH-ZH", identical to the main return and its other three companion schedules, since this is the same cantonal tax authority's own companion form.
8. No live submission was attempted — filing a real Swiss tax return or companion schedule is a real legal act with a real cantonal tax authority, not a safe or reversible action to simulate against a live government process, consistent with this registry's standing discipline.

Access notes

No access blocks: zh.ch was reachable directly from this environment with plain curl for both this form and the Wegleitung — no TCP-level reset, WAF, or CAPTCHA gate encountered, consistent with GOV-1847/GOV-1854/GOV-1868/GOV-1875's findings that zh.ch's own tax-forms domain is unblocked.

Scope and jurisdiction notes

• This is Switzerland's fifth Taxes-vertical document (the fourth companion schedule to the main return, alongside the Wertschriftenverzeichnis, Berufsauslagen, and Versicherungsprämien), not a new vertical or jurisdiction; Switzerland remains at 2 of 6 verticals.
• id reuses the sta authority-directory segment (the same cantonal tax office) and the form's own official title, ASCII-folded, as its slug: aus-und-weiterbildungskosten.
• No edition member is used, consistent with this registry's existing treatment of other annual tax-year-specific schedules. No conditional requiredness (requiredWhen) or documents[] is used, since this schedule's own fields carry no gated evidence requirements — the main return's own documents[] array already gates this form as a whole.

Re-verification

Per the practice's cadence, nextReviewBy is set to 2027-01-09 (6 months), the same cadence as its four CH-ZH sibling documents. Because status remains draft, a future review should prioritize: confirming the 2026-tax-year edition of this form, the main return, and the Wegleitung keep the same box-reference numbering (2900-2905, 2920-2921, 292), and re-screening whether any of the three remaining companion schedules (Liegenschaftenverzeichnis, Schuldenverzeichnis, Hilfsblatt A/B/G) has become a tractable next candidate.