Hi,
After searching I noticed there's no topics.

What is that "Anticipatory tax" thing on the bank account savings?

I read the whole thing in french (no english version)
http://www.estv.admin.ch/verrechnung...x.html?lang=fr...

It seems its something you can reclaim if you properly declare your tax income.

Example:
You have 100CHF interest at the bank, they only give you 65chf (65%) and give the governement 35chf (35%), of which you can reclaim, if you prove you declared your income.

That graph is good to illustrate:



Question is:
When you are "a la source", you don't do a declaration, so how do you get the 35CHF back? I want my chuffs back!!!


Is there any drawbacks to that, like declaring you have 5000CHF savings will get you taxed even more? (Although it's coming from the salary income, therefore it was declared... and highly taxed already).


Thanks,

The tax you are refering to is also a tax at source (impot à la source) but it's called impots anticipé (Verrechnungssteuer in German). As you say, usually you declare the amount that has been deducted in the tax return that you file and will be refunded fully afterwards. As you do not file a tax return (taxed at source) you can't do that. According to the homepage of the cantonal tax authorities of Zurich you will have to file tax return (in addition to being taxed at source) if your bank account savings surpas a certain amount. As far as I understand this amount is set by the cantonal tax authorities. Therefore I suggest calling the cantonal tax authorities. Ask them about the threshold and the proceedure. Depending on the amount deducted it might (or might not) be worth the hassle.

Hope that helps.

I think we are mixing something (or maybe not).

The "Tax a la source" is on the salary... I'm talking about the anticipatory tax (impot anticipé) valid on the "Bank interests".

My colleague explained me, but all "taxed a la source" employee (basically non swiss, here) were ignoring that system. So it's 5 person who are overpaying for years without even having anything back...

Basically everyone is taxed 35% on their "bank interests", its only when they file the tax income declaration that they get those 35% back.
They could actually pay something on those "interests" but only if one has more than 100 000chf, which means "tax on your richness" (taxe sur la fortune).

So basically they "pre-tax" everyone with savings and the only way to have them back is to make a tax declaration. The point is that everyone is charged, so if you sneak any declaration you are still paying those 35%, but if you declare, you have them back....It's a "kind of deposit, or guarantee" so that everyone's paying something....

Problem: for "tax a la source" people we don't declare because it's already taken on the payslip...

So we have no way to have those 35% back on the interest...

My recommendation is to talk to the tax department in your municipality. I found one (Adliswil in the canton of Zurich) that says on their website that you can get the withholding tax back if you are taxed at source by filling in some papers and filing them with the local tax office.

I have no idea how this works not having had to do it myself, but the fact that a municipality gives instructions on how to do it would indicate that it is possible. It might not be easy, but it seems like it can be done.

I checked this issue last year and got a form from the Zurich tax office, but it is way of too complicated to fill the form.
In short, I gave up.

It's 'withholding tax' (in German Verrechnungssteuer) deducted from all interest payments, dividends etc.

This is reclaimed as part of a Swiss tax declaration. If you are taxed at source on income and do not fill in a tax form, then you cannot reclaim this and should make investments outside Switzerland (offshore) where tax is not deducted. Though the income should be declared - somewhere...