I'm living in Bern and normally I pay about tax 18% based on my monthly salary.
Today I got bonus and company deduct (21K) 33.57 % tax from entire income ( monthly + bonus ).

1 ) based on anual total(bonus+monthly) tax rate is 21-22% I guess.
How can they apply 50% tax more?
2 ) I know every country applying more percentage for the bonus,
But it should be bonus only not include monthly one.

Tax filing next year is the way to get it back?

Frustrating as it may be, I don't think you can get it back.

Think of it as a exta bonus you will get back when you complete your tax declaration.

Either way, you should have enough to tide you over this lean bonus period

I feel your pain - we had exactly the same thing one month last year, when receiving the annual bonus made the percentage shoot up, as the computer multiplied that monthly amount by 12 and deducted tax as if we were going to earn that much throughout the year.

We asked on here, hubby's HR, friends, etc, and everyone shrugged and said it was just the system and it would all come out in the wash at tax return time. Which is slightly less than reassuring, given we're still waiting on the tax number to file the return for flippin' 2008.

kodokan

Works fine when you're not taxed at source... like most Swiss. So why would they change it?

Fair point - forgot about that.

i'm moving to bern as well and am trying to setup my budget - tax calculators same different things, different threads say something else again etc etc etc... I've heard everything from 12% to 35% - at the top range I will be able to live but just (at 12 I could save for a nice vacation each year)

The 18% deductions - is that for everything (canton, federal, church, unemployment insurance, pension, etc etc etc)?

BTW - I would love to hear from some people living in various cantons to see what the total deductions (at source) they are really seeing and not what HR or tax calculators or after tax return refunds are done (and forget about itemizing everything...just confuses people)

Thanks for any info you can pass me - anything but use the search option that is