Short answer NO...

Oh happy days...

Thanks for that )

It maybe in your benefit to fill in a tax return... especially with Pillar 3a, maintenance, whatever...

Ok, I am also reviving my own thread. I will bite the bullet this year and file a return even though I am much below 120k. I have been royally .... ....d this year because I lost all my allowances to tax, I mean that I received some money from the EU to cover my 15.000 km move and I paid about 90% tax on it.

There are another 14 scientists at my institute in exactly the same position and we are filing through one Treuhand, although no one knows if we actually end up paying more, so we are actually quite worried. We want to file because our kanton has been more than a pain to us.

The problem is for example, there is this supposedly Expatriate allowance with seems to be a fixed 1500 CHF deduction you can use, but only if you still own a house outside of Switzerland, and of course, young scientists usually do not!

It looks like we have no way of reducing our quellensteuer and claim back some of the (90%) on tax that we paid on EU allowances.

Does anyone have experience with this socalled Expatriate deduction, and what did you need to claim for this? Or any other major deductions that could actually make a difference, as we are all stumbling in the dark together.... Should we invest in Dr Tax and the like, does that come with an explanation of deductions in cases like this?

Could an admin maybe move my thread to Finance...Taxation as that is more on topic, and people looking in Tax will find it then...

Thread moved as requested.

If you ask it the other way around, eg. if you pay quellensteuer and earn less than 120k, you can ask to fill in a tax form, but a) you will have to fill one in for the rest of your live in CH b) they may actually punish you (says Richard)

I will find out about this soon, will try it myself...

How would you be stitched up??

Yes you have this correct however don't watch the clock waiting to find out. You will probably get your answer mid 2008...

regarding the expat allowance so long as u maintain a property abroad you can claim an additional 18000 a year off your taxable income.

every canton recognises this equally since 2004 or so ive been getting it in ZH since 1999 its one of my 1st deductions.

A quick question that doesn't appeared to be answered here yet. I understand that if you earn more than about 120k per year (although this varies slightly between cantons) then you have to file a tax return. Furthermore, if you are married then you if you file a return then you must do so together. Therefore, does this mean that if you are married then the rule to file a return applies if your joint, total income sums to more than 120k (in which case, we might have to file a return) or is it still dependent on whether either of you individually earns more than 120k (in which case, we would not)?

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Cycling in Switzerland | Photo blog (mostly travel pics from Switzerland)

Be careful with the cantonal treshold - in Geneva it is far higher than 120k.

No, no, no this is not cantonal but written into the anhang of the Verordnung über die Quellensteuer bei der direkten Bundessteuer. Check it out here: http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/642_118_2/index.html

No you fall under Tarif C which is Double Earner... Not sure on the tariff limit but I would suppose it must be 120K

Sorry, it was hard for me to understand your response as I have no idea what Tarif C or double earner mean, and a quick search of the forum turned up no other results for these two search terms. I think you're saying that it is the joint, total income that counts, and that the threshold for this would indeed be about 120k. If so, then my question is now how do I find out the exact amount, because we're pretty close to that, and a quick perusal of the website you linked to in your previous result did not allow me to find this value easily, especially since I didn't really know where to look.

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Cycling in Switzerland | Photo blog (mostly travel pics from Switzerland)

Thanks for that - very interesting as I am pretty sure I have seen only days ago somewhere on my local banana republic's website a far higher figure.

Hi

I haven't heard about this 18k tax deduction before ... is it just sufficient to show proof of having property abroad or is it also necessary to show some bills of property maintenance to get benefits? I live in Basel and not sure if this allowance is allowed here

Thanks in advance for your reply. Ashish

this allowance was, IIRC, the fallout from the early and mid 90s where lots of people were taking the mick. I was one of them - IIRC we were squeezing 3500 per month tax- and deduction-free - there were some big bills going back 2-3 years that were negotiated down.

That was back in the old Jim Shaw "It's all for charity" days - aka tour de Suisse with agency aperos

I thought UK tax was difficult to calculate - but this is impenetrable!

Can I just clarify, I will be working in Zurich (with my wife) - is the 120k threshhold for tax returns on both of our salary? I see the question has been asked above, but I'm still not sure of the answer!

I'm also slightly perplexed be this quellensteuer question, is this what my "tax at source" will be referred to, or will it be in addition to my tax at source? I will be on a permanent contract, and should get a B permit (as I'm UK national) and my employers have indicated that I will be taxed at source, but exactly how it will work is a mystery.

I've already calculated that my tax (Commune, canton, confederation) for where I will live (Oerlikon) will be around 14.6%, which seems on the higher of what people have indicated. Then I'll have 5% AVG, 1-2% insurances and....what else?

My employers have told me that the pension scheme they run is non-contributory, so I don't have to put anything in, and to be honest as I'm only 25 for the time being that suits me. But will I have to then pay some kind of extra state pension on top of the AVG?

To sum up those queries:

1. Is the tax return threshhold 120k for both people - or can you be treat separately on this?
2. Is "quellensteuer" the term used to describe the income tax at source - or an additional tax on foreigners like me?
3. Does my 14.6% tax sound reasonable? I'm presuming no other tax will be due?
4. Do my other deductions sound right - and are there any other big deductions (e.g. 5%+) that I have omitted?

Oh, and I concur with other people on the forum, by no means am I under the illusion that Switzerland is a low tax country!

Well here is the link to the appendix: http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/642_118_2/app1.html

Note the exact amount will be 120,000 Francs.