Hi,

Am hoping someone can help: both my wife and I are a B permit holder but are having to fill in a joint tax return this year for the first time (we have tried doing it ourselves by the way).

As B permit holders we are both taxed at source, as we have been the entire tax year, at what seem to be the correct amounts as per the tax authority´s website. The total amount we have paid is about 25k, but according to the tax return we have to pay 34k (we earn about 230k gross pa between us), which seems to be a huge difference (especially given we´ve been paying quellensteuer at the correct rate). I always imagined that quellensteuer would be fairly representative of the amount actually due.

So my question is: is such a difference normal? And has anybody else had any experience in this respect, i.e. would the entire 9k difference be due immediately?

Thanks for any help...

The "extra" is probably due to the fact that you are married. Married couples pay on the joint income, not as two single incomes. Married people with two incomes pay more tax than two singles.

There are lots of threads on this if you want search for more info.

At least part of it will be the fact that your joint income is in a higher tax bracket than your individual incomes; so your tax at source rate has been too low, likely based on each individual's projected annual income.

As for the rest, they'll send you a bill (much quicker than they'd send a refund). If you don't have the money (hopefully you're saving some - 230k is enough to get by comfortably and still put some away), you can probably call them and get them to authorize payments.

To prevent it from happening next year, ask your employer to check if you are being deducted from the correct 'table' - also, it makes a difference if you live in the more 'expensive' parts of the canton, or cheaper ones - our tax rate is lower outside Stadt Zurich than inside it...

Our employers made an error with mine and I need to pay 6% more tax, and my husband about 4% more tax, and it adds up fast...

Just got our estimates for tax returns for 2009 and 2010 (mistake by employer has left us with a great whopping bill).

Difference between quellensteuer and tax returns in Stadt Zurich, 30%

Ouch!