Company 10 min read

Leasing electric company cars in Switzerland: what the company deducts, reclaims and declares

Deductible lease instalments, 8.1 % input VAT, private share on the cash price, Swiss GAAP FER, IFRS 16 and home charging: EV leasing explained.

Aubin Aycaguer, Chief of Staff, Voltaback3 Nov 2026

Finance director reviewing a lease contract for an electric company car in Switzerland

In Switzerland, lease instalments for an electric company car are fully deductible from taxable profit, with no cap based on price or CO2, and the 8.1 % VAT they contain can be reclaimed as input tax. In return, the company declares a private share of 0.9 % a month of the cash purchase price stated in the lease contract, both on the salary certificate and in its VAT return.

This guide is for CFOs and finance teams, many of them expats who know very different leasing rules from their home country. It explains what the company deducts, reclaims and declares, how to account for the lease under the Swiss Code of Obligations, Swiss GAAP FER or IFRS 16, and runs the numbers for a fleet of 20 cars. It ends with the cost no lease contract covers: electricity charged at employees' homes, which Voltaback measures and reimburses for more than 200 client companies.

Key points in 30 seconds

Deduction: lease instalments 100 % deductible as commercially justified expenses, with no federal or cantonal cap.
VAT: 8.1 % input tax reclaimable on every instalment, to the extent of business use.
Private share: 0.9 % a month of the contract's cash price excluding VAT, unchanged after a buyout.
Accounting: off balance sheet under the Code of Obligations and Swiss GAAP FER for an operating lease, on balance sheet under IFRS 16.
Home charging: never included in the lease, to be reimbursed separately.

What Switzerland does differently

Many European countries tie the tax treatment of a leased company car to its CO2 emissions or price: deduction caps, non-deductible portions, reduced benefit-in-kind rates for EVs. Switzerland does none of this.

Topic	Typical approach elsewhere in Europe	Switzerland
Deduction of lease instalments	Often capped by price or CO2 band	Fully deductible if commercially justified
Input VAT on car leases	Often fully or partly blocked for passenger cars	Reclaimable at 8.1 % to the extent of business use
Employee benefit in kind	Often a reduced rate for EVs	0.9 % a month for every powertrain
Basis of the benefit	List price or lease cost, depending on country	Cash purchase price in the lease contract

The result is a system that is simple and neutral between powertrains. The detail matters, however, because the private share and VAT on private use apply to every car that employees may take home.

What the company deducts: the instalments

The legal basis

For a company, taxable profit starts from the statutory profit and loss account. Commercially justified expenses are deductible, and lease instalments for a company car are among them. Legal basis: Federal Direct Tax Act (DBG / LIFD), Art. 58 and 59 (German). Harmonised cantonal tax laws follow the same principle in Zurich, Geneva, Zug, Basel or Vaud.

There is no deduction cap linked to price or emissions. CHF 1'100.– a month for a premium electric saloon is deductible in full, just like CHF 450.– for a small city car.

The limits

Commercial justification: the expense must serve the business. A clearly oversized car for a shareholder-director can be partly treated as a hidden profit distribution by the cantonal tax office.
Upfront payment: a larger first instalment is spread over the lease term, not deducted at once.
Bundled services: maintenance, tyres or insurance included in the instalment remain deductible. Show them separately in your accounts if you want to track full cost per vehicle.

What the private share means for the company

The 0.9 % private share is part of the employee's salary, not an add-back to profit. The company deducts the full instalment and declares the private share as a benefit in kind on the salary certificate.

What the company reclaims: VAT at 8.1 %

Input VAT on instalments

A VAT-registered company reclaims the 8.1 % VAT (MWST / TVA) on each instalment as input tax, to the extent the car is used for taxable business. On an instalment of CHF 850.– excluding VAT, that is CHF 68.85 per car per month. Companies with partly VAT-exempt turnover (insurance, healthcare, education) must correct input tax proportionally. Source: Federal VAT Act.

When buying, input VAT on the whole price is reclaimed at once; when leasing, it is reclaimed instalment by instalment. Over the term the amount is similar; only the timing, and therefore cash flow, differs.

VAT on private use

Private use of a company car by staff is a taxable supply. The Federal Tax Administration (ESTV / AFC) accepts a flat method: 0.9 % a month of the purchase price excluding VAT, treated as VAT-inclusive. For a CHF 50'000.– car, the company declares CHF 450.– a month, of which about CHF 33.70 is VAT (450 × 8.1 / 108.1), around CHF 404.– a year. Source: Federal Tax Administration, VAT notices (German).

For a leased car, the basis is the same as for direct tax: the cash price in the contract.

The basis for leased cars

If employees may use the car privately, the employer declares under item 2.2 of the salary certificate (Lohnausweis / certificat de salaire) a private share of 0.9 % a month, at least CHF 150.–, and ticks box F. For a leased car, the basis is the cash purchase price stated in the lease contract, excluding VAT, or failing that the object price. After a buyout at the end of the lease or a follow-on lease, the original contract value still applies, not the lower residual value. Source: Federal Tax Administration, salary certificate guidance 2026 (German).

In practice, a contract stating a cash price of CHF 50'000.– gives CHF 450.– a month, or CHF 5'400.– a year under item 2.2. The instalment amount plays no role.

Social security contributions

The private share is salary in kind and counts towards the wage subject to AHV/IV/EO (old-age, disability and income compensation insurance) and unemployment insurance. The employer pays about 6.4 % in contributions on it, roughly CHF 345.– a year for a CHF 50'000.– car.

The 0.9 % rule, the logbook alternative and cross-border commuters are covered in our article on the private share of an electric company car.

Accounting for the lease: Code of Obligations, Swiss GAAP FER or IFRS 16

The accounting treatment depends on your company's reporting framework, not on the powertrain.

Framework	Operating lease	What is shown
Code of Obligations (OR / CO)	Off balance sheet, instalments expensed	Notes: lease obligations that do not expire or cannot be terminated within twelve months (Art. 959c para. 2 no. 6)
Swiss GAAP FER 13	Off balance sheet, instalments expensed	Notes: operating lease commitments; only finance leases are capitalised
IFRS 16	On balance sheet: right-of-use asset and lease liability	Depreciation of the right of use and interest instead of the instalment

Sources: Swiss Code of Obligations, Swiss GAAP FER and IFRS Foundation, IFRS 16 Leases.

Most Swiss SMEs report under the Code of Obligations: the lease stays off balance sheet and instalments are expenses. Subsidiaries of international groups reporting under IFRS 16 put every contract on the group balance sheet, with an effect on net debt and EBITDA. For tax, the Swiss entity's statutory accounts under the Code of Obligations remain the basis.

Worked case: 20 leased EVs versus 20 combustion cars

A company in Zug renews 20 company cars for 48 months and 20'000 km a year, maintenance included. The instalments are typical market assumptions: replace them with your own quotes.

Annual item, fleet of 20	20 electric	20 combustion
Cash price per car (excl. VAT)	CHF 50'000.–	CHF 42'000.–
Instalments excl. VAT (CHF 850.– / 720.– a month)	CHF 204'000.–	CHF 172'800.–
VAT on instalments, reclaimed	CHF 16'524.–	CHF 13'997.–
Energy	about CHF 24'000.–	about CHF 43'300.–
VAT due on private use	about CHF 8'090.–	about CHF 6'800.–
Employer contributions on private share (≈ 6.4 %)	about CHF 6'910.–	about CHF 5'810.–
Annual cost excluding reclaimed VAT	about CHF 243'000.–	about CHF 228'700.–

Energy assumptions, step by step:

Electric: 18 kWh per 100 km × 20'000 km = 3'600 kWh into the battery, about 4'000 kWh at the meter including charging losses.
Electricity price: employees live in several cantons, so we use the Swiss 2026 median of 27.7 Rp./kWh excluding VAT (ElCom), about 30 Rp./kWh including VAT: about CHF 1'200.– per car. In Zug itself the median is lower, 21.9 Rp./kWh.
Combustion: 6.5 litres per 100 km = about 1'300 litres at about CHF 1.67 excluding VAT on a company fuel card: about CHF 2'165.– per car.

What the numbers show

On paper, the electric fleet costs about CHF 14'300.– more a year, about CHF 715.– per car. Three factors narrow the gap but are not in the table:

Cantonal vehicle tax: depending on the canton of registration, EVs get a large reduction or an exemption, as in Zurich: several hundred francs per car per year.
Residual value: with a lease, the resale value risk, still hard to predict for batteries, stays with the leasing company.
Accurately measured charging: 30 Rp./kWh is a median. Employees on off-peak tariffs, or in low-price cantons such as Zug, pay less, and actual-cost reimbursement follows that price.

Full four-year cost, including insurance and maintenance, is covered in our article on fleet total cost of ownership.

Lease or buy: how to decide

The case for buying

Input VAT reclaimed immediately on the full price.
Accelerated depreciation: 40 % of book value a year under federal rates, which sharply reduces taxable profit in the early years. Details in our article on depreciating company vehicles.
No excess mileage charges and no end-of-lease reconditioning costs.

The case for leasing

Cash preserved and costs spread evenly.
Residual value risk with the lessor, a strong argument for EVs.
Easier renewal towards models with longer range.

The watch-out: mileage

A lease sets an annual mileage. Exceeding it is expensive; staying well below it also costs, because you pay for kilometres you do not use. Tracking odometer readings over time lets you adjust contracts before they expire. The useful indicators are in our article on fleet mileage tracking.

For an overview of every tax item on an electric company car, bought or leased, see our guide to electric company car tax in Switzerland.

Home charging: the cost the lease does not cover

What a lease covers

An operating lease covers the car and, depending on the offer, maintenance, tyres, insurance and sometimes a public charging card. It never covers the electricity employees charge at home through their own meter. In the example, that is about CHF 1'200.– per car per year, or CHF 100.– a month.

If nobody organises it, employees pay. The 0.9 % rule assumes the employer bears all costs, and paying for charging yourself does not reduce the private share (guidance, margin no. 23). Employees lose out twice.

The two compliant ways to reimburse

A lump sum of up to CHF 60.– a month, set out in the model expense regulations of the Swiss Tax Conference (SSK / CSI) and declared under item 13.2.3 of the salary certificate. Simple, but here it covers only 60 % of the real cost. Source: SSK model expense regulations 2026 (German).
Actual cost: measured kWh × the employee's real tariff. This is the default rule of the SSK model. When documented, it is neither taxable nor subject to AHV. Without approved expense regulations (Spesenreglement / règlement des frais), it is declared under item 13.1.2.

How Voltaback closes the gap

Voltaback measures every home charging session through the connected car (more than 48 brands, whatever the leasing company), applies the real tariff of the employee's electricity contract, peak or off-peak, and produces a monthly export ready to import into your payroll software. Voltaback relies on the home's MID-certified meter, not on a standalone cable meter. The measurement has been audited by an independent third party, with a relative error of 1.22 %.

It is 100 % software: no charger or box to add to the lease. The company never receives drivers' location data, in line with the revised Federal Act on Data Protection (nDSG / nLPD), and Voltaback has been ISO 27001 certified since 2 December 2025. Find out more about home charging reimbursement and the fleet manager dashboard.

Frequently asked questions about company car leasing in Switzerland

Yes, lease instalments for a company car are fully deductible from taxable profit as commercially justified expenses. Switzerland has no cap based on price or CO2 emissions. Only a clearly disproportionate car provided to a shareholder can be partly added back.

Yes, a VAT-registered company reclaims the 8.1 % VAT on each instalment as input tax, to the extent the car is used for taxable business. In return, it declares VAT on staff private use, using the flat 0.9 % a month treated as VAT-inclusive.

The private share of a leased car is 0.9 % a month of the cash purchase price stated in the lease contract, excluding VAT, with a minimum of CHF 150.–. The instalment amount does not matter. After a buyout, the original contract value remains the basis.

No, under the Swiss Code of Obligations an operating lease stays off balance sheet and instalments are expensed. Lease obligations that do not expire or cannot be terminated within twelve months must be disclosed in the notes. Only companies reporting under IFRS 16 put the contract on the balance sheet.

Neither option is always better for tax: buying gives accelerated depreciation and immediate VAT recovery, leasing preserves cash and transfers residual value risk. For electric cars, that transfer of risk often tips the balance towards leasing.

No, a lease never covers the electricity charged through the employee's own meter. The employer reimburses it separately, either with a lump sum of up to CHF 60.– a month or at actual cost measured per kWh.

Leasing EVs without a blind spot

Leasing an electric car is straightforward for tax in Switzerland: deductible instalments, reclaimable VAT, private share on the cash price. The only grey area sits outside the contract: the electricity employees pay for at home.

Voltaback measures and reimburses it at actual cost, with receipts ready for the salary certificate. To apply it to your leased fleet, contact the Voltaback team.