Hello all

I moved to Zurich in November. I am born and raised in the UK but I am a lifelong Swiss National. According to the authorities, I have moved "back" to Zurich despite never having spent any time here before.

Anyway I am a freelance photographer (anyone getting married this year???) and most of the work I've done recently has been in the UK - where I was also employed full-time until September - so I've paid income tax there last year.

I've now been sent a tax return from Stadt Zurich along with a 2014 CHF bill for Staats und Gemeindesteuern and a 20 CHF bill for meldebestätigung. I was hardly in Switzerland in 2007 and I certainly did not earn any money here.

Does anyone have any advice please on whether I can NOT pay these bills? I've seen the threads recopmmending tax consultants and I'll call one of them if necessary.

My husband is a B permit holder and paying tax at source. Does that make a difference?

Thanks for the help

Sarah

Hi sarahw

and welcome "back"! What you just experienced is the usual annoyance at the beginning of the year: a bill you are not going to pay until October or so.

Check for "zahlbar bis" there is nothing. You get a little deduction (called Skonto) if you pay now, but usually that's not worth it. Until you give them the details about your income in the past year they send you a bill for the estimated amount they think you could have earned in this year.

So do what most of us do, throw it away, declare your income and live happily until you get the final bill in autumn.

Rahip

This bill will be an estimate, to be corrected on completion of a tax form.

Unless you have specifcally asked, you and your husband would normally be assessed together. As you are Swiss, I believe that the authorities will trust you both to pay taxes 'normally' ie. not at source.

The first thing to do is speak to your local tax office and get it sorted. This is the beauty of a local tax system...

Thanks very much for answering both of you.

Before the replies I went to the Tax Office and was told that since I was married, we can be assessed together. My husband will have his quellensteuer returned and we complete the form together - it'll only be for one or two months of 2007 so not very much.

A further question - does anyone do a UK tax return in addition to the Swiss one? He will do his 2007 one by next January (the Swiss are so much more efficient than Uk Inland revenue!) and so hasn't paid tax in the UK yet.

I completed both for some years as I had a house in the UK and received income from it.

Unless your husband has income in the UK or other 'things' the tax man might be interested in, there's not much point for anybody in completing a tax form. But the Inland Revenue will be the one that decide if he is 'ordinarily non-resident' and stop sending the forms. The UK ones are much easier than the Swiss forms...