How to read your pay slip

Personal details

This part at the top is reasonably straightforward. It contains your name and the year of the pay slip. You will also see your old-age and survivors’ insurance (AHV) number.

Your total annual salary with all the trimmings, such as your allowances, any commission you earn and so forth.

All the nonmonetary benefits you receive from your employer are listed here, such as a work mobile you are also entitled to use privately.

This section contains, for example, any performance-related bonuses or larger gifts to mark an anniversary. Note that fixed payments such as your 13th monthly salary are not included here.

This line contains backpay, among other things.

If you own shares in the company where you work, you will find the amount for the relevant year listed here.

Any compensation to which you are entitled as a member of your company’s board of directors is listed here. Simply put, directors’ compensation and attendance fees.

This line shows, e.g., tips (if they make up a large part of your wage), unemployment insurance, etc.

This field contains your total income before social security contributions, withholding taxes and so forth.

This field displays the employee’s contribution to pillar 1. This does not include amounts deducted by the employer.

Contributions to pillar 2 are entered here. This shows you how much of your gross pay has gone into your pension fund for the relevant year.

In this field you can see how much salary you actually received in the relevant year after all deductions. The net pay is crucial, as this is the amount entered into your tax return.

You are required to pay withholding taxes if you do not hold a Swiss passport or permanent residence permit B. This field indicates the total amount.

This applies to costs incurred during, e.g., a business trip.

This lists items or services that you have received for free or at a discount. Your employer cannot price these and thus cannot declare them.

This field contains additional information that has not been entered into any of the other fields, but your employer considers important. Your employer also has to fill out a supplementary sheet addressing each individual item.