Hi,

Is the incometax the same if you live in Zug, Cham or Baar? Are they all part of Zug canton?

These towns are all in Zug, however tax is levied at the federal, cantonal and communal level in Switzerland, with the communes fixing their own rates of tax based on the cantonal tax legislation.

You can compare taxes at http://www.homegate.ch/homegate/fina...ault&a=default

wohnort = name of commune (current, planned)
einkommen = taxable income (ideally after pensions and AHV), put your salary here, plus income from savings (it will give you a worst case number)
vermoegen = taxable assets (you can put zero here for now)

zivilstand = maritial status, ledig = single

religion, choose keine unless you really want to fund the swiss church

kinder, number of kids.



Daniel

IF you are newly arrived and are paying "Quellensteuer" or PAYE then yes the tax is the same irrespective of where in canton Zug you live.

Would it be possible to post a brief explanation as to why this is the case or a link to a thread where it is explained please. I've looked but didn't find anything. Thanks.

Here is a start:
Quellensteur (Adliswil)

Many thanks. I'm afraid I still don't get it though.
I thought the principle was that tax is levied at the federal, cantonal and communal level. If one is paying Quellensteuer/PAYE how come there is one rate for the whole canton and how does that work if communities have autonomy in determining their own tax and spend needs?

Quellensteuer is collected by the company making your salary payments in the form of a deduction (PAYE). The company then receives a small handling charge(typically 4%) and passes the rest on to the cantonal quellensteuer department. They then split the money into three pots. One they pay to the state, one to the commune where the employee is registered and the other they keep. IF the employee earns a sum in excess of 120K then it is necessary to follow the normal taxation route and a tax assessment is made at the local commune level. The local commune then says how much each of the three tax collectors should see from the respective pots. If there is anything left over this is returned to the employee and if not then a bill is sent to the employee to cover the deficit. The chances of having a 100% hit are more or less 0!
Is that clearer?

Your explanation is! Cheers.

so basically if you are earning over CHF120k it does matter where you live right even in the first year - so you can't live in a "high" tax area and only pay a standard rate of tax, you will still end up paying the higher taxes, just at the end of the year rather than each month.

I am sure that is it, just wanted to check again - sorry