What is the electronic payroll declaration?

Definition

The electronic payroll declaration is the transmission, by computer, of a company's annual salary data to the institutions that need it. Instead of filling in one form per recipient, the employer produces a structured XML file from the payroll software containing the same information for all of them.

How it works

1. The payroll software gathers the year's data: gross salaries, statutory deductions, absences and specific salary items, for each employee.
2. It produces an XML file matching the structure the recipient institutions expect.
3. The employer transmits the file through the channel each institution provides, or through a transmission platform that distributes it.
4. Each recipient acknowledges receipt and flags anything that needs correcting.

The data transmitted

• Gross salaries and statutory deductions: OASI, unemployment insurance, accident insurance, occupational pension, withholding tax
• The personal data needed to process them: name, address, OASI number, canton of residence
• The items making up the annual salary certificate
• The returns intended for federal statistics

Swiss context

Electronic reporting is part of the administrative simplification pursued by the Confederation and the cantons. It is not mandatory in itself — an employer may still report on paper. But past a handful of employees, entering the same figures several times becomes costly and error-prone, and the file produced by the payroll software saves real time at year-end closing.

How Neoffice handles it

Neoffice keeps Swiss payroll in the same tool as accounting: calculated salaries feed the ledger directly, along with salary certificates and the annual data export. Information is entered once, and the documents meant for employees and for the authorities come from the same source.