DA-1 · Past years
Claim the DA-1 for a past year you already filed
Filing the return does not close the claim. The foreign tax withheld on your dividends can be credited against your Swiss tax for three years after the tax year ends, on a form you post on its own. 2023 to 2025 are still open. Upload that year’s broker export and the figure is the first thing you see, free.
Until 31.12.2026 The DA-1 for 2023 lapses at the end of this year, whatever the amount. Claim 2023 now.
Start here
Pick the year you want back
Each year is its own claim, its own form and its own deadline, because the DA-1 carries one tax period. Reading the export and seeing the figure costs nothing.
Worked example · not your figures
What a year like this claims back
CHF 450.00
CHF 3,000 of US dividends, 15% withheld at source and not refundable by the United States. It comes off your Swiss tax bill, once the DA-1 asks for it.
- The official form DA-1, filled in
- Beilage: every payment behind it
- Begleitblatt: where to post it, and what to write
A claim lapses 3 years after the tax year ends (SR 672.201.1), so years before 2023 can no longer be claimed, whatever the amount. Checked 21.09.2026.
The filled-in form is not on sale yet
Reading a year’s export and seeing its credit is free today. Tell us which years you want to claim, and we write to you the day the filled form can be bought.
How it goes
Five stations, and the last one is a stamp
The same five you see at the top of every screen of the claim, so you always know which one you are at.
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Export
Get the right file out of your broker. Interactive Brokers needs a computer.
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Upload
Say which broker, which tax year and which canton, and hand over the file.
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Check
See what the year is worth, free: every dividend, the foreign tax withheld and the credit.
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Claim
Confirm three things, then pay once or use a credit.
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Post
Print the filled DA-1, sign it, and post it with the annex to your cantonal tax office.
What arrives
- The official form DA-1 for that year, ESTV 605.040.03d, with the securities table filled from your export: one row per security and country, sorted the way the form’s own instructions ask, with the gross income in francs at the ESTV rate of each payment date, the treaty rate, and the amount claimed.
- An annex listing every payment behind those rows, with its date, the gross in the original currency and in francs, and the tax withheld. The form asks for the withholding to be evidenced; this is that evidence. It also lists the income of the same year that does not belong on a DA-1, so the totals on your broker statement add up.
- A covering letter with the address to post it to, the 9 personal details you still have to write on the form, and the date you confirmed the conditions below.
- Every payment as a spreadsheet, one file per account, for your own records.
What we do not fill in, and why
We hold no personal data, so the parts of the form that ask for it arrive blank. Page two asks for your taxable income for federal tax and for cantonal tax, which comes off your assessment for that year, and for an account for any payment. The covering letter lists all 9 items in the order they appear on the sheet.
One block stays deliberately empty even though we could compute it: the additional deduction on US dividends. It is claimed instead of the ordinary credit, and only on the extra tax an American payer withholds above the treaty rate, so filling both would claim the same tax twice. If that applies to you it is a conversation with your adviser, not a checkbox here.
Two conditions, asked before you pay
Both are asked in words on the summary, and the claim cannot be unlocked until you confirm them, because we cannot see them and a claim that fails either one is refused by the office.
- The dividends were declared gross. The credit is granted only on income that was declared at its full amount and taxed in Switzerland. Declaring net is the correct treatment below the floor, so this is a real fork, not a formality. A return that declared net has to be corrected first, and we do not sell a claim for that case.
- The non-refundable foreign tax exceeds CHF 100 for that year. One total across every bank and broker, tested per year, never across years.
What it costs
CHF 19 per year claimed. One DA-1 covers one tax year, so one purchase does too — however many broker accounts fed it. Three missed years are three claims. The CHF 39 tier covers five claims or statements within twelve months, which is the cheaper route the moment you have two years to claim plus this year’s statement. What each tier includes.
Where a claim is posted
This is a cantonal question, and the answer is only written down in some places. Our covering letter carries the address for: Kantonales Steueramt Zürich. For every other canton it tells you to ask your cantonal tax office, naming the year — because an address nobody read off a cantonal page is a claim that never arrives.
Questions people ask
Can one DA-1 cover several past years?
No. The form is per Steuerperiode: it carries one tax year at the top and the credit is set against that year’s Swiss tax. Three missed years are three forms, three envelopes and three deadlines. Each one is a separate purchase here for the same reason.
I already filed that year’s return. Do I have to reopen it?
Not if the dividends were declared gross, at their full amount before the foreign tax. The DA-1 is decided separately from the assessment, so it is sent on its own. If the dividends were declared net, or left out, the return has to be corrected first, and that is a conversation with your cantonal office before any form is posted.
What if the foreign tax for that year was small?
No credit is granted at all unless the non-refundable foreign tax exceeds CHF 100 for that year, counted across every bank and broker you hold. Exactly CHF 100 gets nothing. We show you the figure before you pay, and refuse to sell a claim below the floor.
Is the form filled in completely?
The securities table is, from your export: one row per security and country, with the gross income, the treaty rate and the amount claimed. 9 personal details are not, because we do not hold them — your name and address, and the taxable-income questions on the back, which come off your assessment for that year. They are listed on the covering letter.
Which print of the form does a canton want for an old year?
The ESTV publishes one print of form 605.040.03d and serves the same file for every year and language URL; the Steuerperiode is written on it. We fill in the year you are claiming. No cantonal page we have read states a different requirement, and if your canton asks for its own print, the annex and the figures still apply.
Where do I post it?
To your cantonal tax office. The covering letter carries the address for the cantons whose own pages state one; for the rest it tells you to ask, because an address nobody read off a cantonal page is a claim that never arrives, and you would not find out for months.
Where this comes from
- SR 672.201.1: the claim lapses three years after the end of the tax period.
- ESTV form DA-1 605.040.03d, Erläuterung 2, 3 and 4: filed with the return, one row per security sorted by country, the CHF 100 floor, and the net-declaration rule below it.
- Kanton Zürich, Anrechnung ausländischer Quellensteuer beantragen: the DA-1 decided separately from the assessment, and the address a claim is posted to.
Not sure whether yours was ever claimed? Three places to look in a past return →
See what a past year is worth, free.
Upload that year’s broker export. The credit is the first thing on the summary, before anything is charged.