Key points at a glance
- Every employer must issue each employee a salary certificate on form 11 - once per calendar year, and immediately if the employee moves abroad or dies.
- The authoritative source is the guidelines (Wegleitung, in German) issued by the Swiss Tax Conference (SSK) and the Federal Tax Administration FTA (ESTV), currently in force from January 1, 2026.
- A contractually agreed 13th-month salary goes in figure 1, a bonus in figure 3. Child allowances count as salary.
- In eight cantons, an additional copy goes directly to the tax administration.
Who gets a salary certificate - and when?
Everyone who works or has worked for you gets a salary certificate for each calendar year. It covers all payments for the year on a single form; as a rule, you may not split them across several certificates. If someone leaves Switzerland or dies, you issue it immediately. The guidelines don't set a fixed deadline for giving it to your employees. January is usual, so the certificate is ready for the tax return.
You can download form 11 as a fillable PDF from the Federal Tax Administration or order printed copies from the Federal Office for Buildings and Logistics. For businesses without payroll software, there is also the free eLohnausweis SSK (in German) software. You'll find answers to detailed questions in the 2026 guidelines and in the FTA's questions and answers (both in German).
Currently, the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Bern, Fribourg, Jura, Neuchâtel, Solothurn, Vaud and Valais also require a copy to be sent directly to the cantonal tax administration. In the canton of Lucerne, this is voluntary. The deadline is set by each canton - check with your cantonal tax administration.
The most important boxes
| Box | Content |
|---|---|
| 1 Salary | Monthly salaries, all allowances (including child and family allowances), commissions and a contractually agreed 13th-month salary |
| 2 Fringe benefits | 2.1 board and lodging, 2.2 private use of a company car, 2.3 other, for example a GA travelcard (Generalabonnement) that can also be used privately |
| 3 Irregular benefits | Bonus, gratuity, long-service award, signing bonus - with a description |
| 7 Other benefits | for example health insurance premiums paid by the employer or tax at source (Quellensteuer) borne by the employer |
| 8 Gross salary total | Total of figures 1 to 7 |
| 9 Contributions | Employee share of AHV/IV/EO (old-age, survivors', disability and income compensation insurance), ALV (unemployment insurance) and NBU (non-occupational accident insurance) |
| 10 Occupational pension | 10.1 ordinary BVG contributions, 10.2 buy-ins deducted from salary |
| 11 Net salary | Figure 8 minus figures 9 and 10 - this is the amount that goes in the tax return |
| 12 Tax at source | Total tax at source deducted |
| 13 Expenses | Expense allowances not included in the gross salary |
| 15 Remarks | for example "part-time employment" or approved expense regulations |
Two points often lead to questions. You may not deduct contributions to daily sickness allowance insurance that you charge to your employees in figure 9; you can mention them in figure 15. And amounts on the form are shown in whole francs.
Expenses in figure 13
Expenses are costs incurred while working, for example on business trips. For actual expenses, a cross in figure 13.1.1 is enough instead of an amount, provided you follow these requirements of the guidelines: overnight stays against receipts, meals up to CHF 35 actual cost or CHF 30 as a flat rate, train and air travel against receipts, private car use at no more than 75 centimes per kilometer and incidental expenses up to CHF 20 a day. Flat-rate expenses - such as a monthly car or entertainment allowance - must always be stated as an amount in figure 13.2, even with approved expense regulations (Spesenreglement). A template is the Tax Conference's model expense regulations (in German).
Allowances for the commute are not expenses: they are part of the gross salary as a reimbursement of professional costs (figure 2.3), and box F then stays empty.
Boxes F and G
- F - Free transport between home and place of work: tick this if the commute costs the employee nothing, for example with a company car or a GA travelcard provided for business reasons.
- G - Canteen meals, lunch vouchers: tick this if you hand out lunch vouchers or offer subsidized meals in a staff restaurant - even if you don't know whether they are used.
Example: electrician with a company car
Jonas works for a small electrical business and may also use the company car (purchase price CHF 30'000 excluding VAT) privately. The business adds the private use in figure 2.2: 0.9% of CHF 30'000 is CHF 270 a month, or CHF 3'240 a year. It also ticks box F. His contractual 13th-month salary goes in figure 1, not figure 3.
Common mistakes
- The contractual 13th-month salary is in figure 3 instead of figure 1.
- Child allowances are missing from the salary even though they were paid out with it.
- Flat-rate expenses are missing because they are mistaken for ordinary expenses.
- With a company car, the private use in figure 2.2 or the cross in box F is missing.
- The salary period is missing - it must be stated even for employment covering the whole year.
- For part-time employees, the note in figure 15 is missing.
A wrong or missing salary certificate is no minor matter: anyone who fails to fill it in or fills it in incorrectly can be fined and held liable (see, among others, Art. 127, 174, 177 and 186 of the Federal Act on Direct Federal Taxation, DBG, in German; Art. 251 of the Swiss Criminal Code, SCC). If you need to correct a salary certificate, issue a new one and note in figure 15 which certificate it replaces. Keep a copy with your payroll records for 10 years (Art. 958f of the Swiss Code of Obligations, CO).
How it works in Easly
In Easly, the salary certificate is generated from the year's payslips (Lohnabrechnungen) - on the official form 11, not a replica:
- Filled in automatically: AHV number, date of birth, name and address, calendar year and salary period based on the start and end dates, plus figures 1 (monthly salaries, 13th-month salary and family allowances), 3 (bonus), 8, 9, 10.1, 11 and 12, boxes F and G based on the employee's details, and place, date, company, address, phone number and person responsible.
- Consistent totals: Easly rounds each figure to whole francs and calculates the gross and net salary from the rounded figures - so there are no rounding differences that the tax administration might flag as calculation errors.
- Remarks: For part-time employees, Easly adds the note in figure 15 itself; you can add your own text in two lines.
- Saved to the personnel file: The finished salary certificate is stored as a PDF in the personnel file.
What Easly doesn't do for you
Easly doesn't fill in fringe benefits, pension fund buy-ins or other benefits (figures 2, 4 to 7, 10.2 and 14). Easly does enter expenses from the expenses module and flat-rate expenses in figure 13, and approved expense regulations in figure 15. If any of the figures Easly leaves empty apply to you, fill them in before you hand out the salary certificate.
Frequently asked questions
When do I have to hand out the salary certificate?
The guidelines don't set a fixed date: the salary certificate must be issued every year, and immediately if the employee moves abroad or dies. January is usual. In cantons that require a copy directly, their deadline applies - check with your cantonal tax administration.
Does the 13th-month salary go in figure 3?
No. A contractually agreed 13th-month salary is part of the salary and goes in figure 1. Figure 3 is for irregular benefits such as a bonus, gratuity or long-service award.
Do I have to show expenses on the salary certificate?
You either state actual expenses as an amount or - if you follow the requirements of the guidelines - tick figure 13.1.1. Flat-rate expenses must always be stated as an amount in figure 13.2.
What if someone leaves during the year?
You issue the salary certificate for the period up to their departure and state the exact salary period. If the person moves abroad, you issue it immediately.
Information as of: see above. Sources: Guidelines for completing the salary certificate and pension certificate (form 11) issued by the SSK and the FTA, in force from January 1, 2026, FTA questions and answers on the 2026 salary certificate (both in German), Federal Act on Direct Federal Taxation (Art. 127 DBG; in German), Swiss Code of Obligations (Art. 958f CO). Cantonal deadlines may differ. This article does not replace advice from your accountant (Treuhand) or the cantonal tax administration.