Dear all,

I am a bit puzzled. I asked a Treuhand to prepare my tax declaration and he is insisting that I should declare my foreign banks account to the Swiss authorities, and that this will impact my tax rate (obviously with an increase, that's clear!).

I am an Italian citizen in Switzerland with a B permit and I am doing a full tax declaration as I bought a flat in Switzerland. Switzerland has bilateral agreements to avoid double taxation. Swiss taxes and Italian taxes should be clearly distinguished and split, and no overlap or double taxation should happen. So while strangely in Italy my swiss house is not appearing at all, my treuhand is saying that I have to declare the value of my Italian house. While in italy I dont have to declare my Swiss money being an expat, my treuhand is saying that I have to declare to switzerland my Italian money.

Nevertheless these agreements are rather "not my language" and I have difficulties in reading and understanding all the implications of the clauses.

Did you happen to have the same situation? How did you behave?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions,
Edo

You're meant to declare everything. They add it all up and you pay a "wealth tax" (which is a very low percentage) on this amount.

Before you sign anything, please get someone that knows the langauge to review everything for you. If you are unhappy later with the outcome, you can't get out of it by saying you didn't understand the language.

Isn't that a bit disshonest?

And doesn't a signature signify that the document signed has been understood?

Yes and no.

You don't pay tax on your foreign wealth here, but you do need to declare it is it affects the tax rate on wealth you have in Switzerland.

Tom