Guide · DA-1
Did you claim the DA-1? How to check your past tax returns
Open the copy of your last tax return and look for a sheet headed DA-1. If it is not there, the foreign tax on your dividends was never set against your Swiss tax, whoever prepared the return. A missed year is not lost: the claim can be made for three years, so 2023 to 2025 are still open.
Until 31.12.2026 The DA-1 for 2023 lapses at the end of this year, whatever the amount. Claim 2023 now.
Three places to look
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The return itself
A claimed credit means a sheet headed DA-1, listing every foreign share, ETF and fund one by one with its gross dividend, the tax withheld and the country. A securities list that shows your foreign holdings as one line per broker, with the broker's statement attached, is the usual shape of a return from a broker that issues no Swiss statement, and it means no DA-1 was filed.
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The decision from your canton
The DA-1 is decided by the canton's withholding-tax office. In Zürich it is filed and decided separately from the assessment, and other cantons handle it in their own way. If no decision on the foreign tax credit ever arrived for a year, nothing was credited for that year.
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Your broker's statement
Add up the foreign tax withheld on dividends for the year. If the total is CHF 100 or less, there was nothing to claim and nothing is missing. Above it, that total is roughly what a DA-1 would have set against your Swiss tax, capped at the Swiss tax due on that income. The calculator on the DA-1 guide answers the threshold question.
How long you have
The claim lapses three years after the end of the tax year. The table is computed from today's date, so it never shows a year that is already gone.
| Tax year | Claim until |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 31.12.2026 |
| 2024 | 31.12.2027 |
| 2025 | 31.12.2028 |
Source: SR 672.201.1, "Der Anspruch erlischt, wenn er nicht innert drei Jahren nach Ablauf der Steuerperiode geltend gemacht wird"; Kanton Zürich, Anrechnung ausländischer Quellensteuer beantragen. Checked 19.09.2026.
If a year was never claimed
Two conditions decide whether a late claim is straightforward.
- The income was declared gross. The credit is granted only on dividends that were declared at their full amount and taxed in Switzerland. If they were declared net of the foreign tax, or not at all, the return has to be corrected first. That is a conversation with your canton, not a form.
- The foreign tax exceeds CHF 100 for that year. The floor is tested per year, never across years, and exactly CHF 100 gets nothing.
If both hold, the DA-1 for that year can still be filed. How a canton wants a late claim sent differs: Zürich describes the DA-1 as filed separately with its tax office, and whether a canton wants that year's print of the form or the current one is not written on any cantonal site we have checked. Ask your canton before sending, and keep the broker statement for that year, which both Interactive Brokers and DEGIRO let you export for past years.
What this service does for a past year. The upload accepts 2023 to 2025. Choose the year, hand over that year's export, and the summary shows the foreign tax and the DA-1 figure for that year before anything is charged. The statement you can then buy carries the DA-1 sheet for that year, filled from the same figures.
Questions people ask
Someone else prepared my return. Could the DA-1 still be missing?
Yes. The test is the same whoever prepared it: look for the DA-1 sheet in the copy of 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. If the sheet is not there, the credit was not requested.
I found the DA-1 sheet. How do I know the credit was granted?
The credit is decided by your canton, in Zürich in a separate decision from the assessment, and the amount is set against your Swiss tax. If you cannot find a decision for that year, ask your cantonal tax office, naming the year. Keep the DA-1 sheet and the broker statement to hand.
My foreign dividends were declared net of the foreign tax. Can I still claim?
Not as a simple late claim. The credit is granted only on income that was declared gross and taxed in Switzerland. Declaring net is the correct treatment when the foreign tax is CHF 100 or less; above that, a return that declared net has to be corrected first, and that is a conversation with your canton before any form is sent.
How long do I have?
3 years from the end of the tax year: a claim for 2023 lapses on 31.12.2026, one for 2024 lapses on 31.12.2027, one for 2025 lapses on 31.12.2028. After that the credit is gone, whatever the amount.
Where this comes from
- ESTV form DA-1 605.040.03d, Erläuterung 4: the CHF 100 floor and the net-declaration rule below it.
- SR 672.201.1, the ordinance on crediting foreign withholding tax: the three-year window.
- Kanton Zürich, Anrechnung ausländischer Quellensteuer beantragen: the DA-1 filed separately, the deadline, and the condition that the income was declared.
Why the sheet is so often missing in the first place is explained on the DA-1 guide.
See what a past year was worth, free.
Upload that year's broker export. The DA-1 figure is the first thing on the summary, before anything is charged.