1. As far as I am aware the threshhold is 120K household income.
2. Quellensteuer is PAYE, so yes.
3. Can't say without knowing your salary but if you are in Zürich, married with no children then this would equate to an annual salary of ca 200K for year 2007/2008. If you are single then ca 150K and if you are both earning 160K.
4. You will have deductions of at least 6.1% for social contributions on the first 126K and at least 5.1% thereafter.

Regarding Quellensteuer, I just got a letter yesterday from the Canton of Zürich with some information that may be of interest to some of you:

"Wir haben festgestellt, dass viele quellenbesteuerte Arbeitnemer nicht wissen, dass auch sie - wie Schweizer - das Recht haben, Beiträge für die Säule 3a oder Schuldzinsen etc. im Sinne einer Korrektur ihrer Quellensteuer steuerlich in Abzug zu bringen. Notwendig ist dazu lediglich ein an uns (bis spätestens Ende März des Folgejahres) gerichtetes (formloses) Gesuch mit den notwendigen Beilagen (Bescheinigung, Lohnausweis, Bankverbindung etc.). Am Besten verwendet man aber das Antragsformula für eine Rückerstattung, das auf unserer Homepage herunterladen werden kann (siehe Quellensteuerformular). Ebenso können Quellensteuerpflichtige - analog zu Schweizern - ihre Verrechnungssteruern (beim zuständigen Gemeindesteueramt) zurückvorden."

A-ha, I knew I had seen it somewhere... Welcome to my Banana republic.

Which basically says that if you pay into a 3rd pillar even those who are paying tax at source can claim the tax deduction for this payment. In order to do this you need to send the completed form available from the tax office homepage and seeing as I am nice see attached document...

Attached Files

qstkorrektur.pdf (48.7 KB, 88 views)

Perfect teamwork ;-)

Interesting that they reference the 120K and also say in theory. You can of course fill in the form for anything over 120K and they will have to process it accordingly and of course then send you the request every year. As we both know they can write what they want to save money but if someone points to the law they too, even in the banana republic of Geneve need to respect it

1. Bugger
2. Excellent - as long as it isn't extra to PAYE
3. I am married, no children, but the 14.6% was on much less than 200k, more like half of that! That was via both the credit suisse and UBS calculators, who estimated approx 14.6% tax liability for the year on my gross. I thought this seemed quite high!
4. So I will have 5% AVG, 1-2% other insurances, 6.1% social contributions, 14.6% tax at source and any personal pension (pillar 2 or 3a) that I decide to take out? I guess thats 27-28% (give or take when each percentage is applied) which is still marginally less than the UK.

Erhh, No that is not quite what I said!
3. Check out the attached table - this is for Quellensteuer. The mistake you have used is to use your salary in a Swiss tax based calculation. This is the taxable income ie after deductions which of course will bump your brutto salary right up...
4. Note here I have assumed you are referring to AHV (AVG is something completely different and does not apply to you!) and this is 5.05% plus ca 1% ALV (unemployment money) you can then have 1 or 2% more for other insurances such as daily sickness allowance, private accident insurance etc.

So in total, based on a salary of circa 100K you will be paying around 16% in deductions.

Attached Files

tarif_b_QSt08.pdf (66.2 KB, 152 views)

__________________
The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

Forgive my poor German, but I kind of get the gist of that table. I look up the amount (gross) I earn in a month and then look across at the relevant column which is how many people I support? Is that correct? As it is me and my wife I was looking at B2? Is this correct? I wasn't quite sure which column I should be looking at.

Then presumably this represents my income tax at source? Or is it in addition to the normal Swiss taxes? I'm totally new to this area so forgive my ignorance.

B0 if you don't have kids (0 as in 0 kids)

Taxes are either at source (PAYE) or normal. Never both.

Ok I am going to try this paying into pillar 3a and claiming it back. Note the deadline for UBS is either today 21st or next week...

HI Richard,

I see you give a lot of good advice on these threads, I was wondering if you would be able to help me out with somthing.

So at the moment I am working for a Swiss company based in Zurich, I work in BAsel Stadt and also live in Basel Stadt.

My Gross salary a month is CHF9500 I just got my B permit in JAnuary so my employer has just started to do my tax deduction each month at source, They are saying that we are entitled to CHF2000 a month flat expenses and [no more been a B Permit holder] that this figure is then deducted from my gross salary which leaves me with a taxable income of CHF7500 per month so from this according to basel stadt i pay 16.4% tax is there any way to reduce this figure or am i stuck?

Is AHV tax deductable also like the expences? according to my employer its not which mean in effect I have to pay tax on my AHV also??

I was just wondering I am attending a course this year costing me CHF20,000 I know I am on a B permit but is there any way i can get this money back as the course is to develop my career to the next level?

Any advice would be great Thanks!!

Dontcha love tax time! I´ve tried to search for this (but I´m useless), and I hope there is some one out there that has had some experience.... Me, C-bewiligung or aout three years now. Prior to that I existed on a b, which I loved, give me quellensteuer any day. Husband has a b-bewilligung, has worked and has had quellensteuer taken be both his employers. It´s tax time, and I got sent the tax return which is for both me and my hubby. I called the tax dept. to advise them that he´d paid qeullensteuer, and ask whether I should just cross off his name or what. I was then told that he shouldn´t be paying quellensteuer as I pay "normal" tax, therfore he should too. twas only afterwards that I realised that if this were the case then I paid Quellensteuer for 5 years whilst married to a native and having a b-bewilligung. My question is, has anyone been in this situation and would I be able to get some money back (quellensteuer is more than "normal" tax). I´d be grateful for any advice. Thanks in advance

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"I started with nothing, and I've still got most of it left"
Seasick Steve

I am curious. Your "flat allowance" Would I be right that you are an expat? IF so you have special rules. As to your ability to reduce your tax...

You do not mention BVG or 2nd pillar pension contributions. Would I be right in assuming then that you are "on loan" from a foreign branch of your company? If that is the case the easiest way to reduce your tax is to move to Basel-Land or Aargau...

As to your current 16.4% Well that is from the Year 2007 table so another suggestion would be to suggest to your company that they use the tax table from 2008 in which case you will pay 15.91%!

__________________
The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

Sorry forgot about your course costs. Yes they are deductable you need to fill in a form attached in order to do that and also you need to get a statement from your employer detailing their contribution to the course. Even if this is zero, otherwise you get nothing...

Attached Files

19009_fw_qst_a_08_antrag_tarifkorrektur[1].pdf (148.3 KB, 79 views)

The tax office is quite correct. When you received your B permit your husband should have notified his employer that you were "ordentlich besteuert" and therefore he must be too. You have a right to reclaim the money taxed but this is going to get rather messy and you better trot off down to the local tax office and discuss whats to do. After 5 years your claim disappears so I doubt you will get far with your natives claims and would you want to do that anyway because that is even messier divorce settlement et al. Also your previous husband should have declared your income which he clearly didn't and therefore paid more tax. I don't know how far you should rock this boat - I take it that you never filled in the tax returns for your hubbie #1 and have not got copies.

Try and get a nice settlement for the last 3 years and hope they don't ask more questions...

__________________
The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

You are a leg-end. Free ticket for anything you fancy in the Rote Fabrik (you can choose from theatre, concerts, films). Just let me know in advance, if there´s anything that you think you might like and I´ll bung you on a guest-list. Valid forever!!! Thanks for the feed-back.

I believe the only leg-end is DaveA! At least for now...

Sorry richard yeah we pay AHV, accident insurance and unemployment insurance, i dont pay into a pansion as im only 24!

also yes i'm an expat so this 2000 allowance that i talk about this is for all expats no matter what company they work for? I have a few friends who dont get this allowance and was just wondering about it! do you have any link for this on the Basel Stadt website [i dont speak german yet so can find stuff that easy sorry]

yeah i must check up on that percentage, i'm not ``on loan´´ from a foreign branch of my company. the comany i work for have a office in zurich and london but i have a swiss contract of employment so are therfore emplyed by a swiss company.

one more thing about the course! do they give me back the whole amount of the course^i.e will they give me back 20000 francs or is it just that its tax deductable ?

sorry to be mythering you!

Ok, so I'm taxed at source with a fixed rate every month. However, when my 13th month pay came in last Dec, my tax rate (as expected) jumped significantly.

Bonuses definitely inflate one's income for that month, putting them maybe 2 or 3 tax brackets higher.

Now, do I have the right to get a refund for this? If yes, what's the procedure?

Edit: Can a mod transfer this to the root folder (Finance/Bank/Tax). I wanted to start a new thread instead of replying. Thanks!