Deducting health insurance premiums from your taxes: how it works

Premiums in your tax return: a deduction with a cap

Your health insurance premium reduces your taxable income, but only up to a maximum amount. The tax deduction for health insurance premiums is a combined deduction: the same pot holds the premiums for basic and supplementary insurance, for private accident and life insurance, and the interest on savings accounts (Art. 33 para. 1 let. g of the Federal Act on Direct Federal Taxation, DBG). On the forms, it is usually called “insurance premiums and interest on savings capital”.

In Switzerland, you pay two income taxes: direct federal tax and the cantonal and communal tax of your canton. Each has its own maximum amount. The federal amount is set by the DBG, the cantonal one by your canton’s tax law (Art. 9 para. 2 let. g of the Federal Act on the Harmonisation of Direct Taxes, StHG).

Sources: Art. 33 para. 1 let. g and para. 1bis DBG; Cantonal Tax Office of Zurich, guide to the 2025 tax return. The amounts are adjusted for inflation from time to time; the guide for your tax year is what counts.

An annual premium for adults is usually higher than these amounts. The median premium for adults in 2026 is CHF 465.30 per month, i.e. CHF 5,583.60 per year. For most households, the maximum amount is therefore already reached with basic health insurance alone.

Where to enter it: step by step, using Zurich as an example

The forms differ from canton to canton, but the procedure is similar everywhere. According to the 2025 guide, this is how it works in the canton of Zurich:

1. Get the certificate. After the end of the year, your insurer sends you an overview of premiums and benefits, often in the customer portal. Insurers must certify their benefits to you in writing (Art. 127 para. 1 let. c DBG). More on this under tax certificate.
2. Add up the premiums actually paid. Basic and supplementary insurance for everyone in the household you provide for, including the children. If you switched insurer during the year, you need both certificates.
3. Subtract the premium subsidy. If your insurer offsets the premium subsidy directly, you enter the reduced premium. This is what the Zurich guide requires.
4. Insurance premiums form, part A. The private health insurance premiums go on the first line, below them accident and life insurance and the interest on savings from the list of securities and assets.
5. Part B: maximum amount. Here you work out the maximum deduction based on marital status, pension contributions and number of children, separately for cantonal and federal tax.
6. Part C and item 15. The lower of the two amounts from part A and part B goes into part C and is carried over to the tax return, page 3, item 15.
7. Healthcare costs separately. The deductible, retention fee and uncovered invoices do not belong here; in Zurich they go under item 22.1 with the form “Statement of illness and accident costs”.

If you use your canton’s tax software, the programme calculates parts B and C itself. You only enter the premiums paid.

What a family can deduct in 2026

Example with fictitious people. Nadia and Samuel are married, both employed with a pension fund, and live in Zurich with two children (born in 2016). They pay premiums at the level of the median of all 128 offers in their municipality: adults with a CHF 2,500 deductible CHF 453.90 per month each, children with a CHF 0 deductible CHF 146.80 each (2026 premiums, municipality of Zurich, region 1, with accident cover; source FOPH). They have no supplementary insurance, and we ignore interest on savings.

Two consequences follow. First: if the family receives a premium subsidy, for example for the children, the deductible premiums fall, but they remain above the maximum amount. The deduction then stays the same. Second: a cheaper premium saves every franc in full, because the deduction stays the same. If the family lowers its premiums by CHF 1,000 a year, it pays CHF 1,000 less and loses no tax deduction at all. The premium calculator shows how much you can save by switching insurer or model.

Special cases

• Without a pension fund and pillar 3a: If you pay neither into the 2nd pillar nor into pillar 3a, for example because you have no earned income, you get a basic amount that is higher by half (Art. 33 para. 1bis let. a DBG).
• Children and supported persons: Premiums you pay for children or other supported persons belong in your deduction. At federal level, the maximum amount rises by CHF 700 per child (Art. 33 para. 1bis let. b DBG).
• Unmarried couples living together: Unmarried couples each fill in their own tax return; each person has their own maximum amount as a single person. Your canton’s guide sets out who deducts the children’s premiums.
• Annual payment with a discount: What is deductible is what you actually paid, i.e. the premium after any early payment discount and premium subsidy. Whether paying your premium annually is worth it depends on your insurer’s discount, not on tax.
• Healthcare costs: The deductible, retention fee, dentist and other costs you pay yourself are a separate deduction. At federal level, only the part above 5 % of income after expenses counts (Art. 33 para. 1 let. h DBG); the cantons set their own threshold (Art. 9 para. 2 let. h StHG). The article Deducting healthcare costs from your taxes explains the details.

Common mistakes

• Expecting the whole premium as a deduction. The insurance deduction is capped; the part above it is lost for tax purposes.
• Forgetting the premium subsidy. Only what you paid yourself is deductible. The tax office compares the amounts.
• Entering premiums under healthcare costs. Premiums belong in the insurance deduction, the deductible and retention fee under healthcare costs. Deducting twice is not allowed.
• Mixing up cantonal and federal amounts. The amounts differ; the tax software calculates both separately.
• Keeping supplementary insurance for tax reasons. If the maximum amount is already reached, supplementary insurance saves no tax.

The article What does health insurance really cost? explains the total cost of health insurance, i.e. premium plus deductible and retention fee. The page Premium subsidies tells you whether you are entitled to a premium subsidy, and you will find all providers in the health insurer profiles. More ways to save are in the topic section Saving money.