Tax auditor says no to your lunch? Say yes, louder.

The best trick in adulting: when a bureaucrat denies your claim, you don’t sulk—you escalate. Swiss tax guy says “no” to your lunch-at-home deduction? You file again and claim even more on the exact same grounds. It’s like arguing with a bouncer and ordering a second round while he’s still explaining house rules.

In Switzerland every return gets eyeballed by an assessor—no passive-aggressive envelopes left on a desk here, it’s full-contact finance. OP gets his lunch deduction denied, so he leans into the denial like a wrestler into a headlock and says, “Cool—here’s double.” Paul_DNAP’s comment nailed it: seems like quite a large distance to “hop home for lunch.” Hop? Buddy, that’s not a hop, that’s a weekend getaway. Parkour is now tax-advantaged.

Love the Reddit micro-chorus: “Well played.” “I need this deduction in my life.” “English isn’t my first language”—which, did I say that?—makes the whole thing feel like a charming foreign spy movie where the spy is just really obsessed with receipts. Malicious compliance isn’t rude here; it’s national etiquette.

Mic-drop: the taxman used his own “no” as a blueprint for a bigger “yes.” That’s not cheating the system—that’s tax Pilates: bend their rules until they say uncle. Comedy.