It gets ever-so-slightly complicated by the fact that some things are tax-deductible at the cantonal/local level, and some things are tax-deductible at the federal level, so the calculations start to get rather confusing if you are trying to do your own estimate...and that's assuming your employer actually managed to deduct the Quellensteuer off the right table in the first place (my current employer had to telephone the tax authorities at least three times to get it right....well, we think it's right...)

Disclaimer: IANAA and I haven't actually done the sums so could be wrong but...

My understanding was with Quellensteuer you pay slightly more than if you are properly in the Swiss system and have to file a tax return. the argument being the tax authorities charge more to a foreigner on a temporary stay so there is no chance they skip the country with tax owing.

I have heard (no link to prove it and can't be fagged to Google for one) that expats who leave the country before they get their C permit (i.e. no longer pay QS) are usually advised to file a tax return to reclaim the excess that will have paid.

Certainly, our joint income when we first came was >120k so got tax returns pretty soon after we arrived - and we got rebates as we had already paid QS.

If you are in a salaried position, filling out a tax return is a relatively simple matter - though you will need help if you can't read the local language. Certainly less of a nightmare than the self assessments I used to have to do for HMRC. We've also found people at the tax office (Basel Stadt and Zürich) to be extremely helpful whenever we had a query - a lot better than the po faced individuals at HMRC.

Cheers,
Nick

At least in ZH and BS, the tax declaration comes as a computer program ynd you just enter your details. It makes a pretty good job of leading you by the hand through all the different deductions - having said that colleagues from the US used to complain about having to get their US and Swiss tax returns to tally and I know one guy who used to pay an accountant to help.

Cheers,
Nick

Ours have been prepared professionally. Unfortunately for us, we do end up paying quite a lot more tax - about 3000chf for the first year, 5000 second year and about 4000 the third year.

When I first had to file a return in Italian, I went to the tax office and there was even a young guy who spoke perfect English and helped me to fill it out (I didn't speak Italian back then) for free!

Tom

Bear in mind: Tax at source is calculated on your gross income...no deductions applicable.

Once you are in the swiss system you can make all the deductions (Commute expenses, lunch at work, health insurance, double income, children, childcare etc...). These can easily amount to 20 - 30K.

I once had to deal with this issue for a friend and was told by the tax office in Lucerne that due to these deductions most people actually pay less taxes when filing a tax form compared to being taxed at source. Might be different in ZH...I dunno.