A stocktake of the machine-readable Jahresrechnung in Switzerland · 255 public documents, every statement with its source and its date

Survey · 5 August 2026 · A series in 14 parts

Two Standards, 26 Cantons

The format is published. What sits between a finished file and an accepted filing, we compiled from 255 primary documents — a series in 14 parts, every statement with its source and date.

29'941 wordsa series in 14 parts38 dated sources11 predictions with falsifiernot tax advice

The starting point. eCH, the Schweizerische Steuerkonferenz (the Swiss Tax Conference), and swissdec have published the standards for the machine-readable Jahresrechnung of legal entities; the cantons decide what their portals accept. This series follows neither the formats nor federalism. It follows three documented admission conditions: a login, a contract, and a missing set of instructions.

Two lanes, not one format. The swissdec Transmitter specification (edition 06.03.2026) lists four rows in its communication matrix: the ERP sends XBRL into a canton's own Deklarationslösung (DeclareRawBalanceSheet); the Deklarationslösung sends eCH-0276 to the primary and secondary tax domiciles (DeclareBalanceSheet). Why there are two formats is not in the prose; it is in the state machine. The XBRL lane has a state CompletionReleaseMissing and a Completion element that opens a browser so that a person can complete and release. The eCH-0276 lane has neither. XBRL is raw figures entering a form that a person still has to finish — the word Raw sits in the operation name. eCH-0276 is the finished declaration. At programme level there are in fact three artefacts: the implementation plan of Digitale Verwaltung Schweiz also names eCH-0217 for value-added tax.

Three gates. (1) The contract: «Aus vertragsrechtlichen und statuarischen Gründen seitens Swissdec können aktuell nur kantonseigene Deklarationslösungen die E-Bilanz via Distributor elektronisch empfangen. Für die Anbindung von privaten Deklarationslösungen an den Distributor müssen zuerst die vertraglichen Grundlagen geschaffen werden.» (for reasons of contract law and swissdec's own articles of association, only the cantons' own Deklarationslösungen can currently receive the E-Bilanz electronically via the Distributor; the contractual basis for connecting private Deklarationslösungen to the Distributor must first be created). The word «zuerst» (first) presupposes a «dann» (then). (2) The certification: six of the seven operations in the WSDL carry the note «This operation must be signed by: ERP Certificate»; every message carries the vendor name and a certificate number «wie auf dem physischen Zertifikat abgebildet» (as shown on the physical certificate) — one admission register per vendor. (3) The identity: swissdec company authentication bases a company's identity on «eine bestehende Geschäftsbeziehung … zu einer Versicherung» (an existing business relationship with an insurer); in Zürich an AGOV account represents «immer eine natürliche Person» (always a natural person), and the route into the paperless channel runs through a letter with a physical access code.

The cantons. From one vendor's canton matrix (as at 03.07.2026), 26 of 26 rows counted: transmission for legal entities from third-party software is possible in 14 cantons and not possible in 12 — Zürich among them. For natural persons it is 25 of 26. The gap is eleven cantons. In Genf electronic filing has been mandatory since 2020; in Tessin since 1.1.2024 by law (Art. 198 Abs. 2bis LT). Four different signature regimes, correction windows from zero to ten days.

Obwalden. Four tax periods ahead, and the signed PDF Jahresrechnung remained: «Ohne Jahresrechnung kann die Steuererklärung nicht eingereicht werden.» (without the Jahresrechnung the tax return cannot be filed). The E-Bilanz fills the form; it does not replace the document. From tax period 2025 onward, the canton with the head start left the route on which it had held that head start.

For implementers. Three eCH-0276 schemas are in circulation at the same time. Two of them carry the same namespace and the same schema version version="0", and differ by 13 removed and 15 new elements — and by 88 silent data-type changes from xs:long to xs:decimal. The element TestCase, which the guidelines call for twice, appears in none of the 35 supplied schemas and in none of the 11 examples. We know this shape of hole: in Germany we lost six returns because a missing test marker did not count as an error.

Disclosure. We are a German sole proprietorship based in Cologne. We have never imported a file into a cantonal portal and never sent a call to the swissdec Distributor, not even a Ping. Our own generator passes 42 of 42 paths against the published schema, 40 of 42 against the swissdec schema, and 39 of 42 against the V2.0.0 draft. That number is here because it counts against us.

Contents

Each part stands on its own. Read as a whole, the series shows the connection that matters — the three gates hang together, and none of them is technical. Full series as PDF.

11 · The thesis — and how to refute itThe format is published. Three documented conditions decide the machine-readable Jahresrechnung today: a login, a contract, and an instruction that does not exist.Part 122 · Two lanes, three artefacts — and why there are two formatsThe Kommunikationsmatrix has four rows, not three. XBRL can address exactly one recipient, eCH-0276 any number. What the swissdec schema records about two lanes and three artefacts.Part 233 · Three gates, not oneThe swissdec Transmitter specification of 06.03.2026 documents not one admission condition but three: contractual, certificate-based, identity-based. Read in full, with sources and dates.Part 344 · Zürich, read as a norm — what LS 631.121 actually saysChapter 4 reads the Zürich ordinance LS 631.121 as a norm: § 8 defines when a Steuererklärung counts as filed, § 12 holds the Treuhänder-Register, § 13 names the lever.Part 455 · What «rechtsgültig» means operationally — the identity layerChapter 5 reads what LS 631.121 becomes in daily use: an AGOV login tied to one natural person, an access code by B-Post, no role model, and a five-day clock that stands in no norm.Part 566 · The null count — six terms, 33'000 words, six zerosChapter 6: six search terms across 32'919 words of Zürich taxpayer documentation, counted on 04.08.2026 with word-boundary regex. The table, the control counts and where the zero stops.Part 677 · 26 cantons — the table, and what it says about ZürichWho accepts a legal entity's return from third-party software — 14 of 26 cantons, as at 03.07.2026. Filled: the route exists. Dot: it is mandatory (4 cantons). Zürich is one of the 12 without that route.Part 788 · Obwalden — four tax periods ahead, and what they did not buyAnyone who wants to know what the machine-readable Jahresrechnung actually changes in Switzerland does not have to look at Zürich. They have to look at a canton of around 38'000 residents th …Part 899 · Federalism is smaller than its reputation — and larger1'390 of 1'432 rules in the SSK-Regelwerk are shared, 42 are cantonal and come from six cantons — while the standard provides for up to 26 mutually invalid schemas.Part 91010 · A chapter for implementers — the drift, and the gap we knowThe previous chapter measured the standard from the outside. This one opens the files. This chapter is for the people who actually build the channel. It carries two findings. The fi …Part 101111 · The Aktiengesellschaft that does not appear in the taxonomyThe drift in the previous chapter concerned the declaration format. The second carrier, the XBRL taxonomy, has a gap of its own — and it is bigger than its size suggests. …Part 111212 · What we built — and what it cannot doAnyone who writes about schema drift must supply their own score with it. So that comes first, unvarnished. For the 42 line items of the OR-Mindestgliederung our generator emits 42 paths …Part 121313 · Disclosure — what we have not doneA text that counts must also count what it does not know and has not done. The list is complete, it is uncomfortable, and it is why the rest can be believed.Part 131414 · Predictions — class, grade, falsifierAnyone writing about a development has to say what they expect, how certain they are, and how you would tell that they got it wrong. Everything else is commentary. The thirteen chap …Part 14QSourcesAll 38 sources with their dates, plus the editorial note.Evidence