Switzerland (Canton Zürich) Professional Expense Deductions Schedule (Berufsauslagen 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: 2026-07-08
• maturity.level: structural-reference

Why this cycle picked up Berufsauslagen

This is the recurring "GovSchema Standard Research" cycle (GOV-1868). The prior cycle (GOV-1854), which authored the Wertschriftenverzeichnis (ch/zh/sta/wertschriften-und-guthabenverzeichnis), left the remaining six CH-ZH companion schedules as an open backlog list: Berufsauslagen, Versicherungsprämien, Aus- und Weiterbildung, Liegenschaftenverzeichnis, Schuldenverzeichnis, and Hilfsblatt A/B/G. This cycle picks Berufsauslagen specifically because it is likely the single most commonly populated companion schedule of the six: nearly every salaried filer in Switzerland claims some work-related expense deduction (at minimum the flat-rate "übrige Berufskosten" line), whereas the securities schedule closed last cycle only applies to filers who hold investments. CATALOG.md's own "Known Gaps" list is updated by this cycle to move Berufsauslagen from the open list to closed, leaving five remaining companion schedules.

Sources examined

• Document (id, version): ch/zh/sta/berufsauslagen / 1.0.0
• Spec version: GovSchema 0.3.0
• Authority: Kanton Zürich — Finanzdirektion, Kantonales Steueramt Zürich (the same authority as the main return and the Wertschriftenverzeichnis; this form's own printed issuer is also "StA Form.", here "360").
• Primary source: https://www.zh.ch/content/dam/zhweb/bilder-dokumente/themen/steuern-finanzen/steuern/natuerlichepersonen/2025/est-formulare/360%20Berufsauslagen%20ZH%202025%20HA%20DEF.pdf — "StA Form. 360 (2024) 12.25 — Berufsauslagen 2025," fetched directly (HTTP 200, %PDF-1.4, 71,793 bytes, no /Encrypt, no login/CAPTCHA/WAF gate) from the same tax-return landing page GOV-1847/GOV-1854 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 under the 2025 "est-formulare" (Steuererklärungsformulare) listing. The link text and filename ("360 Berufsauslagen ZH 2025 HA DEF.pdf") match the main return's own reference to this schedule by name at lines 220/240 (Ziffer 11.1/11.2).
• A note on the form's own print date. Like the Wertschriftenverzeichnis (StA Form. 340, printed "(2023)"), this form's footer prints "StA Form. 360 (2024) 12.25" even though its own cover page is titled "Berufsauslagen 2025" throughout — the printed template was evidently last revised in 2024 and is reused for the 2025 tax year with only the cover-page year updated. Disclosed as an observed detail, not treated as a discrepancy.
• Companion Wegleitung, examined for rate/cap confirmation: 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 used, fetched the same way (HTTP 200, %PDF-1.7, 1,497,565 bytes). Its pp.13-14 ("Berufsauslagen [Ziffer 11]") restate, in prose, every rate and cap this form's own two pages already print numerically (CHF 700 flat bicycle/moped rate; CHF 5'200/CHF 3'300 commuting-cost caps; CHF 7.50/CHF 1'600 and CHF 15/CHF 3'200 meal-surcharge rates/caps; CHF 0.70/CHF 0.40 per-km car/motorcycle rates; the 3%-of-net-wage CHF 2'000-CHF 4'000 band; the 20%-of-side-income CHF 800-CHF 2'400 band) plus the exact statutory wording of the four private-vehicle-use justifications (matching checkboxes 2041-2044 verbatim) and a fuller explanation of the one line the form itself does not print a fixed cap for (line 2860/2861, extra costs for an out-of-town weekly residence — see scope decision below). Crucially, p.36 carries an official worked specimen of this exact form: "Berufsauslagen 2025, Person 1, Muster-Meister Felix, Kanton Zürich, Gemeinde Zürich, AHVN13 756.1234.5678.90" with CHF 700 at line 202 (bicycle flat rate), CHF 1'600 at line 206 (capped employer-subsidized meal surcharge, both tax columns), CHF 2'515 at line 212 (other-costs flat-rate deduction, both tax columns), every other line blank, and a total of CHF 4'815 at line 220 for both the Staatssteuer and Bundessteuer columns (700 + 1'600 + 2'515 = 4'815, confirmed by arithmetic).
• 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 across both pages — the same flat, non-AcroForm, print/reference-facsimile shape as its two CH-ZH sibling schemas. Both pages were additionally rendered to PNG (pdfjs-dist + node-canvas, 2.5× scale) and visually cross-checked against the extracted text before any field name was assigned. This rendering pass is what resolved:
  • that Person 1's page alone carries the AHVN13 and Gemeinde boxes — the mirrored Person 2 page (p.2) omits both, confirming these are collected once per filing rather than once per person;
  • the exact three-box layout of the "1.3 Auto, Motorrad" sub-table (a two-row worksheet — workplace, workdays, km, trips/day, km/year, rate/km — feeding a single combined deduction box via a printed brace), which a naive text scan alone could not disambiguate from the surrounding checkbox labels ("Auto: CHF -.70 pro km," "Motorrad: CHF -.40 pro km," "geleastes Fahrzeug");
  • that each numbered line (e.g. "201 201," "220 220") prints the same box-reference number in both the Staatssteuer and Bundessteuer columns — i.e. one line number denotes one row with two amount cells, not two distinct box numbers — consistent with how the main return's own professionalExpensesPerson1StateTax/FederalTax fields both cite "line 220," confirming the box-numbering convention carries through correctly from this schedule onto the main return;
  • that no signature/date/declaration block appears anywhere on either page (confirmed by rendering both pages in full) — this schedule transfers its totals onto the main return, whose own single signature block already covers the whole filing, so this document defines no documents[] attestation entry of its own.
  • the p.36 worked specimen described above, used to sanity-check this schema's own field layout and the state/fed shared-box-number convention before any mock data was authored.
• Retrieved / reviewed: 2026-07-08.
• Reviewer: GovSchema Engineering (Standards Engineer — initial authoring source review).

Scope decision: the two-row private-vehicle worksheet is collapsed to one free-text field per person

GovSchema v0.3 fields are flat: there is no array/nested-object element type yet (array/nested object are proposed only in GSP-0009, not accepted). Section 1.3's own worksheet has two printed rows (for a filer who commutes to more than one workplace during the year), each with up to seven distinct values (workplace, working days, km, trips/day, km/year, rate/km, and the resulting per-row deduction), combined via a printed brace into the single box-204/224 deduction total. Per this registry's established treatment of exactly this situation elsewhere (the main return's own childrenInHouseholdDetails and siblings; the Wertschriftenverzeichnis's own securitiesAndHoldingsDetails), the worksheet is collapsed into one carMotorcycleCommutingDetailsPerson1/Person2 free-text field, with the combined deduction kept as its own numeric field (carMotorcycleDeductionPerson1StateTax and siblings) since that is the literal entry box printed on the form.

Scope decision: statutory caps modelled directly on the affected fields

Unlike the main return (which deferred most caps/rates to the Wegleitung since it does not print them on its own face), this schedule prints every statutory rate and cap directly on its own two pages. Per the same pattern the main return itself used for lines it does print a cap for (e.g. childcareCostsStateTax's CHF 25'000 cap), every capped line here carries the matching validation.minimum/maximum: CHF 700 (bicycle/moped flat rate), CHF 5'200/CHF 3'300 (commuting-cost subtotal, state/federal), CHF 1'600 (employer-subsidized meal surcharge), CHF 3'200 (fully-employee-borne meal surcharge and shift/night-work compensation), CHF 2'000-CHF 4'000 (other professional costs, flat rate), and CHF 800-CHF 2'400 (side-job expenses, flat rate). The one line this schedule itself defers to the Wegleitung (weekly-residence extra costs, line 2860/2861) is deliberately left uncapped, since the Wegleitung confirms its total is a composite of an uncapped actual-rent component, a capped meal component, and an already-counted-elsewhere transport component — no single statutory ceiling applies to the combined line.

Scope decision: no Lohnausweis net-wage field, and the itemized-actual lines are pass-through amounts only

The 3%-of-net-wage flat-rate deduction (line 212/232) depends on a net-wage figure drawn from the taxpayer's own salary certificate (Lohnausweis), which belongs to the main return / the employer's own certificate, not to this schedule — this document models only the resulting CHF deduction amount actually entered in box 212/232, not the underlying net-wage computation. Likewise, the "bzw. effektiv gemäss Aufstellung" lines (213/217/233/237) are modelled as plain numeric transfer amounts, with the itemized statement (Aufstellung) itself represented only as a gated documents[] supporting- evidence requirement (expenseItemizationAufstellung), consistent with how the main return and the Wertschriftenverzeichnis treat every other itemized-statement reference throughout this registry.

Field-by-field source mapping

• Header (p.1 for Person 1 only; p.2 for Person 2) → ahvn13RemainingDigitsPerson1, gemeinde, namePerson1, vornamePerson1, arbeitgeberPerson1, arbeitsortStrassePerson1, and their Person 2 counterparts (minus AHVN13/ Gemeinde, not printed on Person 2's page).
• 1. Fahrkosten (lines 201/221, 202/222, the 1.3 worksheet and its 204/224 total, 205/225 Zwischentotal) → publicTransitSubscriptionCostsPersonXStateTax/ FederalTax, bicycleMopedFlatRatePersonXStateTax/FederalTax, carMotorcycleCommutingDetailsPersonX, carMotorcycleDeductionPersonXStateTax/ FederalTax, commutingCostsSubtotalPersonXStateTax/FederalTax.
• 2. Mehrkosten der Verpflegung (lines 206/226, 208/228, 210/230 plus its "Anzahl Tage" box) → mealSurchargeEmployerSubsidizedPersonXStateTax/ FederalTax, mealSurchargeFullyEmployeeBornePersonXStateTax/FederalTax, shiftNightWorkDaysPersonX, shiftNightWorkCompensationPersonXStateTax/ FederalTax.
• 3. Übrige Berufskosten (lines 212/232, 213/233) → otherProfessionalCostsFlatRatePersonXStateTax/FederalTax, otherProfessionalCostsActualPersonXStateTax/FederalTax.
• 4. Mehrkosten bei auswärtigem Wochenaufenthalt (lines 2860/2861) → weeklyResidenceExtraCostsPersonXStateTax/FederalTax.
• 5. Auslagen bei Nebenerwerb (lines 216/236, 217/237) → sideJobExpensesFlatRatePersonXStateTax/FederalTax, sideJobExpensesActualPersonXStateTax/FederalTax.
• 6. Total der Berufsauslagen (lines 220/240) → totalProfessionalExpensesPersonXStateTax/FederalTax, required: true on both, since every filer using this schedule ultimately produces this total (even as the sum of zero-value lines) and it is this document's principal output, transferring directly to the main return's own professionalExpensesPersonXStateTax/FederalTax fields.
• 7. Begründung für die Benützung eines privaten Motorfahrzeuges (lines 2041-2044/2241-2244) → reasonNoPublicTransportPersonX, reasonTimeSavingsOver1HourPersonX, reasonEmployerRequiredPersonX, reasonMedicalUnableToUsePublicTransportPersonX.
• Evidentiary references → the 4 documents[] entries (expenseItemizationAufstellung, weeklyResidenceItemizationAufstellung, employerConfirmationForRequiredVehicleUse, medicalCertificateForVehicleUse), each requiredWhen its triggering field(s) across both persons.

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) implementing the same equals/in/greaterThan/all/any/not Condition grammar as GSP-0013 checked every required/requiredWhen constraint on both fields and documents[] against three scenarios (fabricated, not copied from the Wegleitung's own official specimen — see below for a note on how they were cross-checked against it):

`` OK Scenario 1: single filer, public-transit commuter, flat-rate other costs only OK Scenario 2: joint filers, Person 1 claims private-car commuting + weekly residence + side-job actual costs; Person 2 claims bicycle flat rate + shift-work meal surcharge FAIL Negative control: private-car reason "Ständige Benützung ... Arbeitgeber" checked without the employer-confirmation document (expected FAIL) - MISSING required document: employerConfirmationForRequiredVehicleUse ``

Scenario 1 models a single filer (Anna Furrer, Zürich) commuting by ZVV public transit: publicTransitSubscriptionCostsPerson1StateTax/FederalTax = CHF 1'020 (an annual regional pass, below both caps so no proration needed), otherProfessionalCostsFlatRatePerson1StateTax/FederalTax = CHF 2'520 (3% of a CHF 84'000 net wage, within the CHF 2'000-CHF 4'000 band), giving totalProfessionalExpensesPerson1StateTax/FederalTax = CHF 3'540. All Person 2 fields, all vehicle-reason checkboxes, and all documents[] are absent/false — correctly accepted since none of their triggers fire.

Scenario 2 models a joint filing. Person 1 (Marco Vogel) drives to a single workplace 14 km away for 220 working days, claiming reasonNoPublicTransportPerson1 = true (with employerConfirmationForRequiredVehicleUse correctly not required, since only the no-public-transport reason is checked) and carMotorcycleDeductionPerson1StateTax/FederalTax = CHF 4'312 (220 days × 14 km × 2 (round trip) × CHF 0.70/km = CHF 4'312.00, within the CHF 5'200 state cap and reflected identically in the CHF 3'300-capped federal column at CHF 3'300 after the cap applies — the federal commutingCostsSubtotalPerson1FederalTax is CHF 3'300, the capped value, not the pre-cap CHF 4'312), plus weeklyResidenceExtraCostsPerson1StateTax/FederalTax = CHF 6'200 (triggering weeklyResidenceItemizationAufstellung) and sideJobExpensesActualPerson1StateTax/FederalTax = CHF 1'850 (triggering expenseItemizationAufstellung). Person 2 (Sabine Vogel) claims bicycleMopedFlatRatePerson2StateTax/FederalTax = CHF 700 and shiftNightWorkDaysPerson2 = 60 with shiftNightWorkCompensationPerson2StateTax/FederalTax = CHF 900 (60 × CHF 15). Both totals and all three triggered documents[] entries are present, and the run accepts the scenario.

The negative control reuses Scenario 2's Person 1 but sets reasonEmployerRequiredPerson1 = true (in addition to reasonNoPublicTransportPerson1) without supplying employerConfirmationForRequiredVehicleUse, confirming the evaluator actually enforces requiredWhen on this specific documents[] entry rather than trivially passing everything.

All three scenarios' commuting and meal/shift figures were separately sanity-checked for internal arithmetic consistency against the Wegleitung's own official p.36 specimen (CHF 700 bicycle flat rate; CHF 1'600 capped meal surcharge; CHF 2'515 other-costs flat rate; total CHF 4'815) — i.e. the same box-204/205/220 relationships (component amounts summing to the printed total, with the commuting subtotal capped before the grand total is formed) hold in this schema's own scenarios as in the government's own worked example. No defects were found in the schema itself.

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

``` $ node tools/validate.mjs registry/ch/zh/sta/berufsauslagen/1.0.0/schema.json ok registry/ch/zh/sta/berufsauslagen/1.0.0/schema.json

1/1 document(s) passed.

$ node tools/validate-ajv.mjs registry/ch/zh/sta/berufsauslagen/1.0.0/schema.json ok registry/ch/zh/sta/berufsauslagen/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/berufsauslagen/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 Lohnausweis net-wage figure the 3%-of-net-wage flat rate is computed from — belongs to the main return / the employer's own salary certificate, not this schedule.
• The itemized statement (Aufstellung) a filer attaches when claiming actual costs above a flat rate for other professional costs, weekly residence, or side-job expenses — represented only as gated documents[] supporting-evidence requirements, not modelled field-by-field (its own shape is unbounded and form-free, unlike this document's printed table).
• The two-row private-vehicle worksheet's per-row breakdown — collapsed into carMotorcycleCommutingDetailsPersonX. See scope decision above.
• The office-only fields — none observed on either page of this form (unlike the main return and Wertschriftenverzeichnis, which each carry one office-only stamp/date box).

Judgment calls

1. commutingCostsSubtotalPersonXStateTax/FederalTax (the Zwischentotal, line 205/225) is modelled as its own field despite being a pure sum of three other already-captured fields. Unlike the main return's own exclusion of pure arithmetic/transfer lines (justified there because the companion schedule is where such lines truly belong), this document is that companion schedule, and the Zwischentotal is where the CHF 5'200/CHF 3'300 statutory cap is actually applied — a materially different, separately capped data point from the final total (line 220), consistent with how the Wertschriftenverzeichnis schema itself modelled both intermediate subtotals and a final total.
2. totalProfessionalExpensesPersonXStateTax/FederalTax (line 220/240) are marked required: true; every other line is required: false. The total is always filled in by every filer using this schedule (potentially as the sum of zero-value lines, e.g. a filer claiming only the flat-rate "übrige Berufskosten" minimum); every other line applies only to the specific commuting/meal/residence/side-job situation that filer is in.
3. shiftNightWorkDaysPersonX is modelled as a plain integer, not validated against shiftNightWorkCompensationPersonXStateTax/FederalTax via crossFieldValidation. The exact CHF-per-day rate a filer applies can legitimately differ from the simple headcount × CHF 15 arithmetic in edge cases (e.g. partial-year employment, a rate change never observed on this specific form), so the two are kept independently entered rather than cross-validated, consistent with this registry's general preference for not inventing derived-value enforcement the source form itself does not state as a hard rule.
4. Amounts are modelled as plain number fields in whole CHF ("CHF ohne Rappen," printed on both pages' column headers), consistent with this registry's convention elsewhere of not adding a separate sub-unit field.
5. jurisdiction.level is subnational with subdivision: "CH-ZH", identical to the main return and the Wertschriftenverzeichnis, since this is the same cantonal tax authority's own companion form.
6. 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's findings that zh.ch's own tax-forms domain is unblocked.

Scope and jurisdiction notes

• This is Switzerland's third Taxes-vertical document (the second companion schedule to the main return, alongside the Wertschriftenverzeichnis), 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: berufsauslagen.
• Conditional requiredness uses requiredWhen (GSP-0013), targeting spec v0.3, consistent with the main return and every other document in this registry. No edition member is used, consistent with this registry's existing treatment of other annual tax-year-specific schedules.

Re-verification

Per the practice's cadence, nextReviewBy is set to 2027-01-08 (6 months), the same cadence as its two 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 (201-220/221-240, 2041-2044/2241-2244, 2860/2861), and re-screening whether any of the five remaining companion schedules (Versicherungsprämien, Aus- und Weiterbildung, Liegenschaftenverzeichnis, Schuldenverzeichnis, Hilfsblatt A/B/G) has become a tractable next candidate — Versicherungsprämien (Form 365, glimpsed alongside this cycle's Wegleitung specimen page, p.36) is a reasonable next guess given it shares the same flat, non-AcroForm shape and a similarly broad filer base (nearly every filer pays some health/accident insurance premium).