anyone know when tax refunds for 2007 are going to be paid out? or if there is anyway to hurry them up??

Presumably your tax filing has not yet been assessed. It all depends on the complexity of your tax situation and the backlog at the office assessing you.

Just got a 1200 CHF refund from 2007 - Seems to take a while to trickle back. For some reason, the Kanton, Gemeinde and Bund do not seem to believe the current year - even when your tax return shows lower payments. Just my experience.
Apparently you can tell these people that circumstances have changed and they will downgrade your estimates (never tried it yet) - then you get revised estimates.
Depends which Kanton you live in - mine (Aargau) is one year ahead - some are one year behind.

and do you think you would be able to look at on average 300,000 tax returns per canton of varying complexity in an afternoon and generate a response?

if you are in the system you will get your bill or rebate with interest in due course. think of it as an early xmas present when it comes.

The commune (community? Gemeinde?) where I live (Kanton Zurich, Gemeinde Maur) has informed me that it will take 18-24 months to process my tax declaration for 2007 counting from the time I submitted it.

I moved over to a C permit recently, so now I have to do my tax returns 'the Swiss way'. Havent got used to it really. I made a prepayment for the expected bill in 2007 and have money sitting in an account for the expected remainder. Funny system! This money just sits there.

Now I have received the expected bill for 2008 and have been invited to prepay for this year too. I just dont really know if I should. I mean 2007 hasnt been sorted out.

How do other people manage their tax bills anyway? At some point I will receive a bill for the rest of the tax from 2007. I assume it will be large i.e. mulitples of 10'000 CHF. What would happen if I didnt have it on account? Must happen that people have cash flow imbalances all the time. I sort of prefer paying tax at source and filling in a tax return later....

two ways:

1.) get the highest paying deposit account with your bank (i like e-deposit with the post) and each month automagically transfer in 20-30% into it and forget about it! when the bill comes pay from that account.

2.) you can also pre-pay monthly i think with most cantons.

option 1) you earn interest from the point of deposit and you can access the money in an emergency but then you will need to have another back up. some people give in to temptation but this account should be called you tax account for taxes only! you can open as many of this as you wish with the post.

but with option 2) the tax man actually pays YOU a higher interest rate (not sure if it is from point of deposit of end of year) but he has the money and will only allow you to use for the taxes! there is a post some where on this. if i find i'll add it.

EDIT: here it is and a useful thread too!

http://www.englishforum.ch/finance-banking-taxation/36246-swiss-tax-dumbies.html#post427546

I too live in a Commune on Zurich's periphery. My tax declaration is usually assessed within 2 months. Reason: I have a small income and no fancy deductions. This is within the competence of the village officials.

More complex tax declarations are forwarded to the experts at cantonal head-office. I help a neighbor with his tax return and that is assessed after about 2 years.

Curious if I will receive an indication that our tax return was received? I submitted ours about a week and half ago (before receiving notice that we needed to file - need to get the US taxes underway) and then made a payment - that seemed to trigger us getting our notice for needing the file a tax form. Is this just the left hand not talking to the right and/or they haven't opened our return yet?

i'm going to have to follow mine up since i didn't even get an acknowledgement that they received it yet

it's a far cry from the professionalism and speedy efforts of the schaffhausen tax office. i might be tempted to move to canton schwyz in the latter half of this year to reduce my tax and hopefully get a better response time...

Submitted mine a week ago. Walked into the Geminde and dropped it off personally (they even had a special box to post it in). I haven't received any kind of confirmation, don't know whether I should expect one.

I have a duplicate copy that I kept anyway so I can prove it was done if I encounter any problems.

Submitted a full tax declaration for 2010 - never heard anything back.
Submitted the "request form" to have child care and 3rd Pillar taken into consideration - not heard anything back.

So I gather that acknowledgments are not sent out; how long before any refunds get sent out, and do you receive a letter explaining what and why is being refunded?

BTW I live in a Gemeinde just outside Zurich city walls (so I gather as usual that things vary wildly between Gemeinden?)

live in Baselland, every year Hubby and I have submitted in May and had tax professionally done, normally get the final bill for the previous year in July( this has been the case for the first 4 years here - hopefully the same this time) , always had a return of money, so ring them up, they asked for bank details over the phone, and money was in account within 4-5 days. Should be fun for the coming months now moved onto a C permit....

Bern has an excellent system, completing paper forms, using a CD, or online.

I always do mine online and have just received a refund for tax year 2010.

Also in Bern, they never acknowledge receipt of the completed tax claim.

If the final bill has not been agreed, you can request any amount of refund youpaid on account.

I use Zurich tax office as a high interest tax free account, pays 2% no tax payable on interest & does not show as an asset for wealth tax!

I got final figures for 2010 in May 2012, about 6-8 months later than in previous years.

Wow. I'm glad I live in the French speaking part is all I can say. Tax forms arrive in Janaury to be completed and returned by 1st March. Payment slips arrive in late April/early May for first payment at the end of May and I also got my notification that the commune owed us money from previous year's payments. If we wanted to claim please return the form by end of June; I dropped it in to them this week so expect to see the refund credited to the bank account in July/August.

But no, never get an acknowlegement of receipt of the forms. They're too busy calculating what you're going to pay in the coming year.

Is it true that after 5 years, you can send the tax office a letter (lawyer's letter) and claim that they have to accept your tax declaration as final because 5 years had lapsed?

Maybe then they will work on it.

(someone told me this).

You need to write to them at all, there will be a limit, & when it passes thats it.