Tax certificate

What is the tax certificate?

The tax certificate is a document from your health insurer that sums up the figures for one calendar year for your tax return. Many insurers also call it a statement of benefits for tax purposes or an overview of premiums and benefits. It usually has two parts: the premiums billed to you during the year, and the costs you bore yourself, that is your co-payment and benefits the insurer did not cover.

The certificate matters because you can deduct health insurance premiums and medical expenses in your tax return, but only up to certain limits. The tax administration wants supporting documents for this. Instead of adding up every premium invoice and every statement of benefits yourself, you take the totals from the certificate.

The certificate usually covers basic health insurance and supplementary insurance together, and many insurers show them separately. It only concerns the insurance policies you hold with that one insurer. If you have basic health insurance with one insurer and supplementary insurance with another, you receive two certificates.

Do not confuse the tax certificate with the insurance policy, which shows your insurance cover and premiums for the coming year, or with the statement of benefits you receive after each bill you submit.

How it works

The insurer issues the certificate for the past calendar year. What you do with it depends on two deductions:

Insurance deduction. You can deduct the premiums paid for health, accident and life insurance together with interest on savings, up to a maximum amount. For direct federal tax, this is CHF 1,800 for single people and CHF 3,700 for married couples living together. CHF 700 is added for each child or supported person. If you do not pay contributions to old-age and survivors’ insurance (AHV), invalidity insurance (IV), occupational pensions or pillar 3a, your deduction is half as high again. For cantonal and communal tax, the cantons set their own amounts.

Medical expenses deduction. For direct federal tax, you can deduct medical and accident costs you bore yourself, insofar as they exceed 5% of your net income. These include the deductible and retention fee from basic health insurance, but also bills that no insurance paid, for example dentist’s bills. Anything the insurer reimbursed does not count. Here too, the cantons have their own rules on the threshold.

So the insurance deduction is capped, and the medical expenses deduction has a threshold. The tax certificate provides the figures for both. You collect other supporting documents, such as dentist’s bills, yourself.

Legal basis

The Federal Health Insurance Act (KVG) contains no duty to send out the tax certificate automatically. The basis lies in tax law. Under Art. 127 para. 1 let. c of the Federal Act on Direct Federal Taxation (DBG), insurers must issue written certificates to the taxpayer on the benefits paid out or owed under the insurance relationship. If you fail to submit the necessary certificates despite a reminder, the assessment authority can request them directly from the insurer under Art. 127 para. 2 DBG.

The deductions are governed by Art. 33 DBG. Art. 33 para. 1 let. g DBG allows premiums for life, health and accident insurance and interest on savings to be deducted up to CHF 3,700 for married couples and CHF 1,800 for other taxpayers. Art. 33 para. 1bis DBG raises these amounts by half for people who do not pay contributions to AHV/IV, occupational pensions and pillar 3a, and by CHF 700 per child or supported person. Under Art. 33 para. 1 let. h DBG, medical and accident costs are deductible insofar as you bear them yourself and they exceed 5% of taxable income after deduction of expenses.

For cantonal and communal taxes, Art. 9 para. 2 let. g and h of the Tax Harmonisation Act (StHG) prescribes the same types of deduction, but leaves the amount of the insurance deduction to cantonal law. Your co-payment in basic health insurance, the deductible and retention fee, is set out in Art. 64 KVG.

Example: how much of a CHF 6,960 premium is deductible

Daniel is 38, single, lives in Zurich and has basic health insurance with a CHF 300 deductible. For his premium we take the median of all offers in Zurich (region 1) for adults with accident cover: CHF 580.00 per month (premiums 2026, source: FOPH). To illustrate, we set his net income at CHF 70,000. The calculation uses the amounts for direct federal tax.

What this means for you

The tax certificate saves you work, but it does not replace a look at your own supporting documents.

1. Get your certificate. After the turn of the year, check that you have received the certificate from every insurer you are insured with. If you changed insurer during the year, you need both.
2. Collect your own documents. Costs not linked to insurance, such as the dentist, glasses or medicines not covered by basic health insurance, do not appear on the certificate. You can store bills and results in your customer account.
3. Read your canton’s guide. The maximum amounts and rules for cantonal tax differ from canton to canton. The guide also explains how to take any premium subsidy you received into account.
4. Lower the premium rather than chase the deduction. The insurance deduction is capped. A lower premium saves money directly. Compare offers in the premium calculator and the health insurers under Health insurers.

The entry tax deduction explains the deduction options in more detail.

Common mistakes

• Trying to deduct the whole premium. The insurance deduction has a maximum, which for adults is usually below the annual basic health insurance premium.
• Declaring reimbursed costs as medical expenses. Only what you bore yourself is deductible.
• Overlooking the 5% threshold. For federal tax, medical expenses only count above 5% of net income.
• Forgetting documents for extra benefits. Dentist’s or therapy bills you paid yourself increase your medical expenses, but they usually do not appear on the certificate.

How we build examples and calculators is explained under How we calculate.