Hi Nico,

I'm on a similar Post-doc salary at Lausanne (just under 60K), and I get about ~3.5K per month net, if that helps. But be aware that the deductions vary locally, so what you get might be different.

Sam.

To Chris:

The problem is I am chemist. If one has other job direction the salary can be more or less depending on your qualifications.

Of coure I 've read the posts here, but it is still remains unclear which salary get a postdoc at ETH.

Thaks,

Nick

Hallo, Sam!

Thak you for your comment.

This sound is strange, I am very surprising of your salary, because it is usual Ph.D. money in Switzerland and not a postdoc ones.

Did you asked other postdocs about it?

Are you chemist? I ask, because normally you will get in bad case 78.000CH in year (brutto). Maybe I am wrong, but I think a minumum will be 34.200 Euro for a postdoc here.

Read this as a pdf!

http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache...lnk&cd=1&gl=de


Thank you,

Nick

I was referring to your question of what your net income would be given a certain gross income, which has indeed been answered in this thread. As for what salary a postdoc at ETH gets, that question is not really for this thread, so I will make a response to the thread "Average salary for a post-doctoral scientist".

The 3rd pillar is a way to save more money for your pension, to pay less taxes and to get better annual interests compared to a saving account. I have been doing this already for 4 years and I recommend it! It is like a saving account with around 2.5% annual interest in which you can put a maximum of ~6200 CHF per year. Then, according to your salary, you can deduce taxes. I am a postdoc at ETH and with this kind of salary and putting the maximum in the 3rd pillar account I get around 1500 CHF back. I guess that your taxes are deduced "à la source" because you have a B-permit, so you only have to send in March a letter with the bank statement and then they deposit the money in your account! I found that the best bank for this is the WIR bank (best interest).

If you stay in Switzerland, you only can get this money out of the mank when you retire, if you want to buy a house, or if you want to start your own business. But if you leave, you can take the money out.

Hope it helps!

Garthia

GArthia, did you have to do a return anyway, or were you taxed at source? If you were taxed at source, did you have to fill in a return, whether a normal return or lite return, or just some special form relating to the pillar 3a payment?

Hi muze7!

So, I am taxed at the source, and you don't have to fill any form. Every year in January you receive from your employer the certificate of salary for the tax declaration ("Lohnausweis für die Steuererklärung" or "Certificat de salaire pour la déclaration d'impôt"), and when you are taxed at the source it doesn't seem very useful, but it is! If you have a 3rd pillar account, your will also receive a certificate from the bank stating how much you invested in the 3rd pillar ("Bescheinigung über Vorsorgebeträge" or "Attestation concernant les cotisations de prévoyance").

You need this two papers and a very simple letter saying that you have saved X CHF in a 3rd pillar account and that you want money back from your taxes at the source. You give them the details of your bank account so that they can deposit the money, and you send the 3 papers to the Kantonales Steuersamt before March 31th. Then you will get the money a month later. The earlier you send all this, the fastest you get your money back.

For the ones in Zürich, the address of the Kantonales Steuersamt is:

Kantonales Steuersamt
Abteilung Quellensteuer
Postfach
8090 Zürich

For the ones that are in swiss german cantons, here is the letter I sent this year in german:

Rückerstattung Abzug von Quellensteuer

Sehr geerte Damen und Herren

Ich habe im Jahr 2006 den maximalen Betrag von 6'192,. CHF auf ein Vorsogekonto einbezahlt. Bitte finden Sie anbei die erforderlichen Unterlagen, um mir den entsprechenden Abzug von der Quellensteuer zurückzuerstatten.

Kontoverbindung:

Konto: Here put account number, bank name and bank address
SWIFT_BIC: XXXX
BC-Nummer: XXXX you get this numbers from your bank

Bei allfälligen Fragen stehe ich Ihnen gerne zur Verfügung.

Besten Dank und mit freundlichen Grüssen,

XXXX

I hope this helps!!

Garthia

Marvellous Garthia! Will do exactly as you have posted

Hi all postdocs

My other half is starting something similar shortly - I'm very, very, very pleased to say the thesis was out of the way nearly two years ago.

He is a medical doctor too, his post is a clinical research fellowship at Triemli and University Hospitals in Zurich. My question is, do any of you guys have EU grants as well as Swiss salaries, and how does that affect what tax you pay? He's getting an EU grant paid in euros and the Swiss guys are paying him the same again - presumably both will take the relevant taxes?

Also, if any of you do get EU money or euro funding, how do you transfer it into Switzerland - do you get it paid into a bank account there?

Thanks for the help!

Sarahw, I am in exactly that situation. I will reply to that below, but first somthing else related to previous posts on getting money back if you pay into 3rd pillar accounts while paying tax at source.

I checked this out further, it seems it is not possible in every kanton, apparantly Basel and Ticino and a 3rd kanton I forgot do not allow it.
So before you open a pillar 3a Fisca account and deposit money in it, check that it is is allowed for quellensteuer people (who pay tax at source) with your tax office (steuerverwaltung)!

Short summary of your situation assuming you are talking about salary, not research money: it will be complicated and largely very annoying in terms of dealing with the financial implications (tax, pensions, moving costs as you will see).

1. The money will be given to the uni, not him; they will transfer the lump sum into an account in Swiss francs, hence hope the exchange rate on that day will be good as this determines your effective salary to some degree
2. The uni will give him a contract, based on a salary in swiss francs; the uni will be the employer, not the EU;
3. The uni will pay employer contributions for his pension from his salary
4. He himself will then pay his own contributions from his salary
5. Hence, the net salary is much less than you might expect
6. He will be taxed at source if he earns less than 120000 CHF per year
7. He then has a choice of claiming tax back or not
8. The reason I mention point 7 is that any allowances the EU will give him for relocation costs, travel costs will be taxed fully, and this may or may not be retrieved in part by a tax return; this I yet have to find out by trying it myself
9. If you are lucky point 8 might be untrue depending on the law on expenses in his kanton, or on your negotiating skils, meaning if it seems expenses will be taxed, ask the uni to compensate for this somehow
10. As an example, I paid about 50 to 80% effective tax on my expenses

Please anyone can you please provide me with an estimate of how much I should expect as salary. Is 40,000 chf okay?

Well, as a junior postdoc in Geneva I am getting roundabout 60,000 CHF, which may be reduced to net 45,000 CHF after taxation and deductions. Taxation is strongly canton dependent, Geneva has one of the highest. I would expect an industry income to be higher than 40,000, but I never actually worked in industry.

I think it's safe to assume you will be earning a fair bit more than that

Just thought I'd throw some very recent figures into the light of day...

I've just accepted a physics PostDoc position at the PSI, 25km outside Zurich, in the Kanton of Aargau. This is my first PostDoc, so I'm deemed to have "no experience" - apparently a little thing like my PhD doesn't count!!!

I've been quoted the following cold, hard figures (I'm single, no kids)...

Gross Annual: 81,000 CHF
Gross Monthly: 6,230.75 CHF (13 months)

AHV (Social Security ): 314.65 CHF
ALV (Unemployment Insurance): 62.30 CHF
NBU (Accident Insurance): 49.00 CHF
Pension Fund "Pubblica": 318.95 CHF

Direct income tax (for foreigner) (12.1%): 753.90 CHF

Net Monthly: 4731.95 CHF


I hope these figures will give others who are thinking of moving to Switzerland something to work with.

Lee

I got stiffed, then.

Hi, I'm a Chemist PostDoc and all you are writing sounds to me really interesting. My PostDoc is paid a bit less than Lee's (78000 CHF), but over 12 months instead of 13. I pay more taxes (the swiss and the company's "Pensionkasse"), so that also monthly I have a little less. After my german Phd salary and my italain fellow, I thought to be rich, now I see, I'm just normal.. (anyway happy). My feeling of being rare as a Postdoc ina company seems to be correct. I'd be happy to discuss impressions and experiences with other people in the same position! I live in Basel and I'm going to stay at least for anoother year.

Ciao ciao

ale

67,000 'cos I'm on 75%. Yet some of the newbies have started on 100% and they haven't got a family either...
If they want me for another year, then they can cough up the full 100%. Grr...

Hello everybody! Could someone please explain the story for the Marie Curie Fellows then?

Do some universities / institutes in Switzerland not take tax from the "mobility allowance" and "career exploratory allowance"? In Germany, these parts seem to be treated as tax-free allowances!

Also is it correct (as to some extent indicated later down in the same thread), that both the employer's and the emploee's contribution to the pension system are taken from the "monthly living allowance", as well as from all other allowances?

No, that's incorrect.