Hi,

I just moved to CH and dont have an appartment yet. I believe my tax % is based on Quellensteuer now. Some people say it will always be that for foreigners, but our HR said after 1 year i can change it to normal taxation, what is used by Swiss, too. Now i stay in canton Zurich, but what if i temporarily move to canton Aargau, does my tax % change in the next salary already (3,5 %units higher in Aargau) or does it remain the same what it was in January?

I havent got the answer from our company, that's why asking here...
Thanks a lot!

It depends on:

• How much you earn
• Which Canton and/or Gemeinde you stay (cutoff depends on that, 120'000 for Zurich)

If you stay in Zurich (I don't know about other Cantons) and if your salary is more than 120k CHF a year then you are allowed to fill in a tax return and your tax due is calculated as per a Swiss national or C permit holder. It may be higher or lower than what you pay as Quellensteur.

As for shifting to Argau and its advantages/disadvantages, hold on till a more knowledgeable person on taxes answers that one for you.

a quick check of the posts in the tax and zurich threads would have answered these questions.

bill

ok, sorry. I tried to remove my thread, but didnt manage.
As soon as i posted this i got the answer from our payroll giving me the tax % in Zurich and Aargau. It is higher in Aargau and it will change in the next salary.

Strictly speaking you remain subject to the quellensteuer regime until you have a C permit, buy property or marry a national. After one year your employer can opt to guarantee your tax bill and you can then pay tax as if you were subject to direct tax.. however you are still part of the quellensteuer regime.

Note this subtle difference is highly relevant if you are say changing canton during the year.. otherwise the impact is small.

However, what's the point really? since most cantons operate a defacto PAYE system with estimated tax due in say 10 installments, and in the others getting the tax bill is not nice eg I just got SZ bundesteuer for the whole of 2008. The only instance is if you live in a super low tax commune (compared to your cantons average) or have very high negative deductions on income from other sources.

Daniel

You can compare your taxes among the different cantons on the 2 following links:

normal Swiss taxes: http://www.comparis.ch/steuern/steue...vergleich.aspx

Quellensteuer (withheld): http://www.comparis.ch/steuern/quell...errechner.aspx