Hello,

I am moving from the US to Switzerland in two weeks to do research as a post-doc. My financial support will come from a US-based entity in the form of a post-doctoral fellowship and the stipend paid to me will be paid by EFT into an American bank on a monthly basis. It is then my responsibility to do a regular transfer to whatever Swiss bank I setup for my living expenses in Switzerland.

I seems like I will have to pay income tax only to the US on this money. Does anyone have any thoughts as to whether I will even have to file a Swiss tax return? I know there is a treaty, so I dont expect that I will have to pay taxes in both locations.

Thanks for any ideas!

PS I realize that any responses are informal advice only and not to be treated as advice from a tax professional. I'm just curious...

I have no expertise in academic stuff, but my immediate queries would be:

What university will you be attached to, and isnt the funding running through them?

How are you getting a work permit?

Daniel

Isn't it that you have to be resident for 182 days per tax year in a country for you to be liable to income tax there? I seem to recall that is usually the rule...
As a US citizen you have rather odd tax rules applicable to you anyway, a friend of mine is half-US citizen, has never lived there and still has to file a US tax return.

For more information, go to this link

You must be a resident of a foreign country and to be eligible for foreign tax exemption be out of the US for 330 days out of any 12 month period and that leaves you exempt from paying US taxes up to USD $80,000.

The OPs problem is that he gets paid in the US on a fellowship but is a resident in Switzerland.

Hi- I just moved here and am in a similar situation. Does anybody know if you can claim the foreign income exclusion or the foreign housing exclusion if you are paid by a US institution but live outside of the US for >330 days?

Would it make a difference if you received an in-kind housing contribution from the Swiss Institution?

Hi,

I actually wound up calling the IRS on this about 2 years ago. I am going to repeat what the IRS told me but you should not consider this to be bona fide tax advice (hopefully that's obvious to you).

The key to whether or not you can claim the foreign-earned income exclusion is in whether or not your residence permit puts you on the path toward permanent citizenship. I don't remember the two types of permits that you can get in Switzerland. I had a B permit and this was explained to me to be better because it counted as years of residency if I ever wanted to become swiss. In contrast the other type of permit post-docs in my group received did not count. The guy at the IRS explained to me that this was the true test of whether or not I was truly a resident of the other country. I claimed bona fide residency and therefore was not subject to the physical presence test.

Anyway if you have doubts you should call the IRS tax hotline and explain your situation. Or even better talk to a qualified tax professional in Switzerland who serves expats. They will know the answer to your question immediately.

My expection is that you will have to file a swiss return and a US return. You will file your swiss taxes first, then take a credit for any swiss taxes paid in your US filing. You can use Turbo tax for your US filing, it has the forms you need for those living abroad...I use the Deluxe package.

Hello,

I have a home in the US. Can I deduct my mortgage payments (interest poriton) from my Swiss tax return? Yearly interest expenses are approximately USD 12k. The value of the house (market minus mortgage) is approximately 25k.

Thanks,

Yes. World wide assets and liabilities are considered for tax. Watch out though as the tax authorities here might want to consider the rentable value of your property too.

I have somewhat similar problem. The difference is that I'm not a US citizen but I'll be working from home in Zurich for a company in US. My wife is starting a post-doc in ETHZ and my permit will be dependent on hers. I don't know how to deal with taxes (US and Swiss) and whether or not I actually can have an income on that basis with my presumably temporary B permit.
Since I thought this might be a different question, I started a new thread.