The safe harbour: five criteria, cumulative
The Federal Tax Administration formulated a screening test for securities trading — Circular No. 36, applied to crypto by analogy. Meet all five criteria and you are in principle not professional: positions sold were held at least six months; annual transaction volume does not exceed five times the holdings at the start of the period; capital gains are not needed to fund your living — as a rule of thumb, under half of net income; no debt financing; derivatives only to hedge your own positions.
The reverse is not automatic: breaking one criterion does not make you a trader — then the overall assessment decides: frequency, system, planning, market proximity, use of bots and leverage. The safe harbour is a harbour, not a fence. But anchor far outside it — daily trading, leverage, short holds, volume well past five times — and you sail into a case-by-case review whose outcome you do not control.
In Switzerland, zero percent is not a right but a classification. And classifications are read from your own trading history — years later, retroactively.
What reclassification costs
Gains classified as professional are income from self-employment: taxed progressively — federal, cantonal, communal — and subject to AHV social security, roughly ten percent on top. The review regularly reaches back across all open periods. The consolation of symmetry: a trader deducts losses, a private holder does not — in a loss year, the classification can even be favourable. Whoever plans the line plans it in both directions.
Where holders cross without noticing
The volume criterion and rotation. Frequent switching between coins counts toward volume. Turn your portfolio several times a year and you breach five-times faster than the balance suggests.
Leverage and credit. Debt financing is the single heaviest indicator — margin trading leaves the safe harbour in one click.
Derivatives beyond hedging. Perpetuals and options for extra yield are not hedging.
The living-costs test. Quitting your job to "live off trading" supplies the criterion yourself — the overall assessment reads intentions too.
What to do
- Read your own history against the five criteria, yearly. Volume, holding periods, financing — an hour's work with your own export, and it prevents the most expensive surprise in Swiss crypto tax.
- Document borderline cases before anyone asks. Trading near the line, record why the overall picture stays private — contemporaneously, not in hindsight.
- Treat leverage and yield derivatives as a regime change. Not a broker feature — a tax switch.
- When the tax office asks about your activity: understand the line, then answer. The questionnaire is the exam. Advice before the answer costs less than one word too many inside it.
Professional classification is an overall assessment by the authorities. This page explains the criteria; it classifies no one, and reading it creates no professional relationship.