So you can understand my situation I need to tell the following 3 points.

1) I moved from Brazil to Switzerland on September 2008.
2) In the last week of 2008 I got married.
3) My wife was working in Brazil until middle December 2008 and came to Switzerland only in February 2009.

For the tax calculation, the tax office has considered my wife's income from September 2008 until December 2009, while she was working in Brazil.
That means that she needs to pay double tax (in Brazil and in Switzerland) for a period in which she was neither working in Switzerland nor married to me.
Unfortunately there is no tax agreement between Brazil and Switzerland.
Is this a correct procedure? Does it make sense? Has anyone been in a similar situation?

I believe that I need to look for a tax advisor, but firstly I would like to know from you if it is worth to do it or I just have a lost case in the hands.


Taking the extreme case: if a foreign person marries a Swiss in the end of the year, she needs to pay taxes in Switzerland over the whole year income she had in a foreign country.
It doesn't seem quite fair to me.

My guess is that your wife is not liable to Swiss taxes in 2008. She was neither resident in Switzerland nor had any Swiss income in 2008.

Before engaging a tax adviser, you might have a freindly chat with the assessing officer. Ask him/her whether there is a misunderstanding.

Are you sure that your wife got a formal assessment for 2008? Could it be that she got a provisional calculation for 2009 based on 2008 earnings?

A definitive assessment must be contested in writing (registered letter) within 30 days of the assessment date.

are you absolutely sure that the tax authority taxed your wife's income for 2008? As you have been married in late 2008, the applicable tax rate is the one for a married couple. In determining the tax rate, the tax authority will consider the income of both of you for the whole year. It does not mean that it is taxed, but it is taken into account for determining the applicable tax rate. Only your income should be taxed at that rate...

Syt, you are a tax professional. But your statement is misleading.

Husband and wife are assessed and taxed separtely in the wedding year. Joint taxation is only in the subsequent years.

Please verify and quote the pertinent article in the tax law.

You're completly right. I just took a look better and they use her income to calculate only the tax rate. The income taxed was only mine. Thanks a lot!

Really? I believe I am right: http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/642_117_1/a5.html

You speak German I guess: "Bei Heirat werden für die entsprechende Steuerperiode beide Ehegatten gemeinsam veranlagt."

I have no pretention to know everything in taxes and especially of the many different practice of the Swiss cantons (especially in the German part), but this is the statement of the Federal law and due to the Harmonization law, I expect every canton in Switzerland to tax jointly in the first year. The answer of Felipe seems to confirm this understanding. Nevertheless, there may be different practice at cantonal level, which would in that case imply a different tax filing for the federal tax as for the federal tax Husband and wife have to be taxed together the year of wedding... this would nevertheless sound a bit strange to me

The tax law in ZH from the official publication of the tax department:
http://www.steueramt.zh.ch/html/steu...uerpflicht.htm
"Ehegatten werden erstmals für die der Heirat folgende Steuerperiode gemeinsam veranlagt. Für die Steuerperiode in welcher die Heirat stattgefunden hat, werden sie noch getrennt voneinander (als unverheiratete) besteuert."

The City of Zurich states
www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/fd/de/index/steuern/natuerliche_personen/heirat.html
Bei Heirat im Verlauf einer Steuerperiode haben die Ehegatten erstmals für die darauf folgende Steuerperiode eine gemeinsame Steuererklärung einzureichen. Für die Steuerperiode des Heiratsjahres wird jeder Ehegatte noch getrennt besteuert.

Für die direkte Bundessteuer gilt die Sonderregelung, dass auf Antrag der Steuerpflichtigen eine gemeinsame Besteuerung bereits für die Steuerperiode des Heiratsjahres erfolgen kann. In diesem Fall ist innert Frist eine zusätzliche gemeinsame Steuererklärung bei der Dienstabteilung Bundessteuer des kantonalen Steueramtes, Bändliweg 21, 8090 Zürich, einzureichen.

Hence, I conclude:

• ZH standard practice is that couples are taxed separately in the wedding year.
• ZH residents would by default also be taxed separately for federal taxes.
• If ZH residents want to be taxed jointly, for federal taxes in their wedding year, then they must explicitly request it

Switzerland = Wonderland!

Thanks Godltop, I've learned something today! It is quite interesting to see that ZH choses to do something that goes against the federal law... Does that come from the ZH arrogance?

It's also interesting to see that the provision to align cantonal and municipal taxation process to the federal one is
1. a choice granted to the tax payer
2. is stated in the municipal tax law...

Difficult to add more confusion than that...

I don't know about the other points but I can confirm this one. I live in Kanton Zürich and got married to my Swiss OH earlier this year. The following month I stopped paying Quellensteuer and received a provisional tax-declaration for us both to fill out.

A week or two later we received separate tax bills for this year - but were told that next year, we would be receiving just the one for us both.

The reasons for the divergence are probably historic. ZH has not yet bothered to harmonize this.

The ZH rules are apparently friendlier for the tax payer. If OP lived in ZH, he would not be hit with taxes on his wife's income.