Made for Swiss self-employed & SMEs
A self-employed carpenter in Winterthur keeps his receipts in a shoebox and his invoices in a folder labelled "to sort". Every spring the same feeling arrives: the tax return is due, the documents are everywhere, and it all has to be right — because the tax office and the fiduciary are waiting.
Preparing the annual tax return is rarely difficult in the legal sense. It is difficult because it is scattered. Receipts sit in a drawer, bank statements live in the e-banking portal, and a dozen small decisions — private or business, deductible or not — pile up until the deadline forces them all at once.
The good news: this is exactly the kind of repetitive, document-heavy work a calm AI routine handles well. Not to do your taxes for you, but to gather, sort and draft — while every final decision stays with you.
Why the tax return feels so heavy
Ask any self-employed person or small office why they dread the annual return, and the answers are the same:
- Documents everywhere: receipts in a shoebox, invoices in the inbox, statements in three different portals.
- Private versus business: every single expense needs a decision, and the decisions quietly pile up over twelve months.
- The fear of mistakes: one wrong number can trigger a query from the tax office, a correction, or a delayed assessment.
The result is a task that gets postponed until it has to be finished in one stressful weekend.
A calm, once-a-year routine
Instead of one big mountain, break the return into three quiet steps. Each one takes a little time, and each one can be supported by AI.
Step 1 — Collect everything into one list
Start with a single checklist. Give the AI the documents you know you need — or simply your profession and the year — and let it draft the list you should collect. Then work through it in peace.
I am preparing my 2025 tax return as a self-employed [profession]. Draft a checklist of the documents and figures I need: income, expenses, insurance, pension, debt interest, and anything else typical for my situation. Keep it in plain language, one item per line.
Step 2 — Separate private from business
Once the documents are together, the real work begins: deciding what counts as business and what is private. The AI can draft the first split for you. You review and correct.
Here is a list of my expenses for the year. Sort each one into three groups: clearly business, clearly private, and unclear. For the unclear ones, write one sentence on why they are uncertain and what information would settle it. Do not invent figures — work only with what I give you.
Step 3 — Draft the summary and the answers
Most returns need a short cover note for the fiduciary or the tax office, and answers to a few standard questions. Let the AI draft both from the sorted material, then adjust the wording and check the numbers yourself.
What AI does well — and what stays with you
- Sorting and summarising: turning a messy pile of items into a clear, ordered list.
- Drafting the cover note: a short, neutral explanation of what is in the return and what you assumed.
- Spotting gaps: flagging the documents that seem to be missing before the tax office does.
What stays with you is the judgement: every private-or-business call, every figure, and the final responsibility. The AI prepares; you decide.
A note on data and security
Tax documents are sensitive. Client names, social security numbers, income figures and account details have no place in a public consumer chatbot. Use an approved setup — a local model or a zero-retention enterprise service — or anonymise the data first and add the real details back into the final documents yourself.
The outcome
Three or four quiet hours, spread over a week, are usually enough to turn the annual tax return from a dreaded pile into a tidy, finished submission. The checklist exists, the documents are sorted, the summary is drafted — and you send it off with a clear head instead of a knot in your stomach.
