Hi,

In the US if I receive pay for 2011 in 2012 that's considered 2012 income. Is there any such concept in Switzerland? I've been told by one source, no. That would be income taxable in 2011. Anybody else have knowledge/experience with this?

I suspect it could vary by Canton, however I don't think it's a big issue. As long as you declare & pay tax they will be happy.

I got asked a couple of questions re my 2010 return recently , i had written a small error , they just went with what I wrote it was close enough!

Thanks for trying to answer. I should have been more clearer. I didn't want to complicate the question. It would be tax beneficial for me if I were to declare the income in 2012 as I expect my income to be lower in 2012. In the US if I get paid in 2012 for doing 2011 work, it's 2012 income. I was wondering if the same concept applied in Switzerland.

Income is declared when it is paid, not when the work for which it was earned was done. This seems to be common with bonuses, etc.

Often there is a gap of several years.

The Swiss tax system is pretty straightforward, if you received the income in 2012 just enter as 2012. It's an administrative error at worst, not worth loosing any sleep over.

I work for multiple employers, one year I did some work in November & was paid in that November, the company however did not issue an end of year salary slip, I queried this & they said it was easier to add it to the following year! Interestingly they did pay the AVS/AHV in the earlier year. The tax office never queried anything, I don't think they even have access to the AVS/AHV figures, everything is strictly confidential even between government departments!

why would you declare and pay tax on income you haven't had yet?

If it was received in the relevant tax year you put it on the form, otherwise you don't.

In the UK you are liable to taxes on income in the year it arrises, being paid or not is not relivent! As you can imagine, figures have to be corrected & old years recalculated as you can claim bad debt relief, or if final accounts change from estimated accounts.

I agree.

It tends to be income is reported on a paid method. When it is received.

With regards to bonues, often people will receive a bonus at the beginning of a year which relates to prior year performance. It would be reported in the year it was received. However, from a US perspective (I know off topic), there is a concept of sourcing over prior year days.

For example, if you had worked 20 days in New York in 2010, and your bonus paid in Feb 2011 was related to 2010 performance, you would pro-rate 20 days to New York as New York source income.

I'm not on Quellensteuer (tax at source). When my company paid me a bonus in 2012, it was declared as part of my salary of 2011 for AHV (and other salary related) purposes. My company then receives a bill for the AHV (and others). For personal tax purposes it is also part of 2011 income.

However, I do this in order to reduce the profit of the company - I work for my own GmbH. I could arrange things so the bonus was considered part of 2012 income. On that basis, I come to the conclusion that it depends on how your employer accounts for it. However, I am not an accountant.

If you're on Quellensteuer, I can't see how it could be accounted for except on date of actual payment.

The OP said 'if I receive pay...' this implies employee and getting paid every month, so there is no late payment to worry about.

If you are talking self employed then yes you put the income according to the invoice date.

I am talking about working as an employee in Switzerland, if you work at a clients place of business & they dictate the hours you are not self employed, even if you want to be.

I have waited upto 5 months both in ZH & GE, being legally obliged to pay by the 5th of the following month is theory & not always practiced in reality.

I'm the OP. I'll give you a little more background. I posed this question to the major multinational accounting firm that will be doing our taxes. The first person answered it's 2011 income. The second person, which gave me a more detailed response said it's 2012 income. She basically said if you didn't get a salary certificate for 2011 it's 2012 income which is my scenario. Same company, totally different answers. This is why I solicit info from other sources. In my case it's better that it's considered 2012 income.

This makes sense from an accounting perspective. Although in practice, I found that 2011 bonus was paid and tax deducted in 2012. Though maybe one reason was that it was only calculated and declared in the next year.

Let me guess - you are using the same 'major multinational accounting firm' that we were shackled with due to the terms of OH's expat package? Lawdy, I was so happy when we were finally free.

Demand that your account be taken over by a senior person. Don't stand for bad advice or wet-behind-the-ears clueless young'uns. Seriously. Kick up a fuss - there is no excuse for the poor service that these big consulting firms try to slough off on their clients, given what they charge.

I see you are a US citizen - the US considers the income taxable in the year paid - and you want your Swiss and US filings to reconcile. (And as a US citizen you really need an experienced tax adviser. Bad advice on the US side will come back to haunt you... and your advisor won't be the one left holding the bag.)

Yes, wife's assignment package. I pity anyone that has not had the experience of doing their own US taxes and gets saddled with one of these situations. I know enough to doubt things that don't sound right to me and ask questions in more than one place. I've had the deferred income scenario in the US probably the last 15 to 20 years and the last thing I wanted was a 2011 Swiss return and a 2012 US return with different numbers. For what they are charging they should be sending us wine and chocolates every month.

If you have a Swiss salary certificate, it's easy, what is written on the form is what you put in the box, otherwise what you declare & your salary certificate won't match . The tax people will notice that !

The Swiss won't see your USReturn & vice versa .