Hi,
I'm looking for an English-speaking accountant/tax advisor in the Lugano area. I'll be moving there from the US in January and need someone to handle both Swiss and US taxes.

Hi

Can someone recommend an inexpensive tax advisor to fill in 2009 returns in Zurich ?

thx

Iste

Have you checked this thread yet?

There are some listed for Zurich, give them a call for their prices

From working with him last year on my taxes, I highly recommend:
> Ryan Larson E.A.
> U.S. Tax Services
> Usteristrasse 19
> CH-8021 Zürich, Switzerland
> Tel: +41 (0)44 212 40 60
> Fax: +41 (0)44 212 40 88

Hi - Looking for a reasonably priced accountant in Geneva, any suggestions? PWC quoting 3K and need a cheaper option.

Thanks for any recommendations.

I would highly recommend:

ALMAS Management Services AG
Peter Alther
Mühlegasse 11
8001 Zurich
Tel: +41 44 262 17 18

Very reasonable for basic tax return, around 125chf or so. Husband / Wife entrepreneur team. Speaks english, very responsive, handles follow up from tax office as well after submitting forms. I used them for many years. Did not even meet them for quite a while, all handled through emails/post

what sort of accounting are you after?

There has been lots of request for tax advisor in the Lausanne area in this thread, without any response.

Just to try my luck again, has anyone worked with a tax advisor in the Lausanne or nearby area? I have a fairly complex situation with income from US and Switzerland, living in one canton and working in another etc. I would like some advice regarding this. Please let me know if anyone has any experience with a tax advisor in this area.

Hi - I need some help navigating a question that has come back to me over last year's tax return, plus completing the return for this year. Currently I am operating as a sole trader but weighing up when the business will get to the point that I will want the protection of a SARL. So it would be good to have a contact who cuold help set that up if needed.

Any contacts gratefully received.

Hi
You could try Daniel Spitz. I have somewhat similar situtation to yours and he has been able to provide good advice. I have only recently started to use his services and so far so good.
Certified Tax Expert
Lic. Iur.

T: +41 (0) 21 311 00 53
M: +41 (0) 79 709 66 49
F: +41 (0) 21 311 00 58

dspitz@dsconsulting.ch

www.dsconsulting.ch
DS TAX CONSULTING

Rue des Terreaux 2
1003 Lausanne
Switzerland

hope that helps

Sorry - re above post, I fôrgot to highlight he is based in Lausanne

Just wanted to add another recommendation for Denise Collin for completing Swiss taxes. I got her name on these boards. She's in the Baden area. We just finished our taxes and I was able to complete/submit all forms by email. She is fluent in English and it was a pleasure to work with her.

Denise Collin
Colfina Finanz/Treuhand GmbH
Steinlettenweg 7
Postfach 36
5074 Eiken
Tel. ++41 (0)62 875 82 75
FAX ++41 (0)62 875 82 76
denise.collin@colfina.ch

Ok, a question to the more experienced folks on here:

We are possibly one of the most simple situations: Both employed as normal employees without any special expat, self employed or contracting things to consider, no property, straight forward bank and savings situation. However, over the years we both started to earn more than before and our tax bills start to be pretty large. Up to now I made the returns myself and found the paper work very straight forward.

I was thinking about getting some expert advice on "how to behave more tax efficient", but: If I read the price tags mentioned here, the guys would need to find many tricks to lower your salary first in order to break even... let alone make a profit.

So in short: does it make sense? How much can you deduct from your "common employees taxes" with the tricks a normal newcomer to the country does not know? I know this is vague... just some experiences if it made sense for you?

Hi, I spoke to him once but rates were quite high for a "simple" tax return... do you happen to know how much he charged/hour?

thanks

I used Herr Ruggli ( http://www.ajrconsulting.ch/ based in Horgen) for my tax return for last year. He came to my house (Thalwil) twice and it cost less than CHF200. I think I got a good deal. He was really good and his English is perfect.

May I ask: Do these guys do anything more than filling out the forms for you?

Maybe I am just looking for the wrong type of thing, but in Germany - where the tax is much higher - it is basically a sport to find some of the many loopholes in the complicated tax laws to reduce your bill...

Well, it's me actually. I am not (and will never) restrict my work to the blind filing of tax returns. I am a tax advisor, certified tax expert, I am advising people and corporation on how to reduce their tax liability, I am not an accountant or a non qualified person who blindly files return without knowing if what he does is right or wrong. You pay for what you get. For tax returns, I offer a global review and analysis plus advice and ongoing assistance for the full year. Filing of the return is only part of the package. You may find this "high" compared to someone filing your return for CHF 200 but I am ready to cut my hand that you don't get more than the filing and wouldn't bet a coin on the reliability of someone charging such fees for filing a return (it is my personal opinion, based on my experience and what I see in my daily business). In the end it is a personal choice of each individual whether one finds it better to spare a few CHF in tax advice and work with the cheapest one, taking the risk to end up paying much more taxes due to wrong advice, or doing it the other way around. I have no advice to provide in this choice. Each one decides for himself. But compared to my "colleagues", with the level of knowledge, expertise and service I bring, I am much more than reasonably priced.

I am no way arguing your competence (or lack of) but for my requirements which was a simple tax return i.e. no properties, employed by a company with impot a la source, i thought the rate was quite high and was not prepared to pay for this.

I was clear about my requirements. If you are not an accountant (as you state) and do not want this type of work, you could've told me that upfront and save wasting both our time.

I believe my case is so simple that if I were smart enough I could even do it with the VaudTax software... but unfortunately I am not

Regarding rates, I agree you get what you pay for but at the same time you can only command your rate if you have people who are willing to pay it (in my case I was not). I know this from experience being a freelance consultant for amy years. I could charge what I wanted as long as the market was prepared to pay for my services.

Best of luck to you and you business.

I have no idea what other services he/they offer. I just have a bog standard tax filing that needed doing. He did suggest a few things to me to trim my tax burden but I'm pretty sure the Swiss efficiency also follows though to the tax laws here.

We are getting away from the topic but I don't see it this way. Whatever you sell, you can increase the price until no one pays for it (this is the maximum price) OR you can fix a fair price based on costs and fair return on it for your clients (which means you could be higher but there is no need for it). There is no right or wrong price, but I find the second approach much more fair and this is what I do.