Hello everyone!

Maybe some of you have experience with this. My income in 2008 exceeded 120K and I live in Zurich. I believe I am due a tax refund. I emailed the Gemainde and they politely replied that they will send me a "Tax Erklärung" sometime in May. Well, May has passed.

Should I "proactively" approach them? I think I should get money back as I was taxed heavily on my bonus. Is it too late to file the 2008 return now?

As a second question: I came to Switzerland in mid 2007 and I never filed a tax return for 2007 (income from June to December). Due to really high tax rate on sign-on bonus, it would be logical that I should be getting money back. Is it too late to file back taxes for 2007 now?

Thanks a lot for your answer!

i am in a similar situation,though i have not done a thing about it because I KNOW there is nothing you can do, short of telling them that you are skipping the country, that will move the tax authorities faster. there are other factors that should also be taken into account like your employer filing their provisional company taxes/info etc which is the info that actually informs the tax office that you have earned more than 120kCHF.

it will never be too late to file a return, the issue you will have is how fast THEY deal with when you have made the return. when they ask for it you have to supply it. but you can usually get an extension on the time required to submit.

your second question: its not logical at all!

did you earn Gross (120kCHF * 7/12 =70kCHF) in 2007 in CH?

if so then you should have received a tax return to fill in, if not call into your local tax office and explain your situation and they will probably give you a form to state the situation, which will later trigger a request for a proper full 2007 return.

if you earned less than 70kCHF in CH then you will have to prove that you earned >120CHF a year worldwide and try and convince them that you should make a return. you would have to apply for a full rebate in the UK in that case. again that will be clear if you talk to your local tax office.

In another EF thread, there were people complaining that they had to pay tax arrears after filing a tax return. Suggest you use the online tax calculator to determine your tax liability when you do file. And when you file, you must declare and are taxed on entire global income and global assets. Maybe you are better off as you are.