I am planning to move from Zch to Schaffhausen for professional reasons. And I was surprised to find out, further to homegate.ch tax calculator that..."For a change in city of residence from Zürich (ZH) to Schaffhausen (SH) your tax burden will increase a 11.67%"

My question, at this point, is how can a canton justify the existence (i.e.: ruling) higher taxes than Zürich?. Do you get more services? What does the average citizen get in exchange to justify living there? (instead of in other places where taxes would be lower, such as Zug, or even Zch!...)

Thanks.

That would be the Civilisation Tariff, indicating the distance of Schaffhausen from Canton Schwyz.

The closer you get to the benighted heart of Switzerland, the lower your tax bill.

Worth every penny, I'd say.

For living so close to the REICH ,there are added taxes to offset cheaper groceries,pleasure taxes and you are auslaender in two country's

Less expensive housing usually compensates for higher taxes, the difference between Schaffhausen and Zürich is about 25 to 30 percent.

Martin

do what we did, live over the other side of the Rhein from Schaffhausen......very close but in canton Zurich, this way you benefit !!!!

that's what everybody says, but when i use the online tax calculators - compare living in schaffhausen city to across the river (flurlingen or feuerthalen):

ZH 100%
Flurlingen 116%

total: 216%

or

ZH 100%
Feuerthalen 121%

total: 221%

compared to:

SH 112%
SH 98%

total: 210%

so although the cantonal rate may be high, the lower community rates can offset it.

Tax rates are often lower in wealthier areas, because 10% of a hugh amount, is still a huge amount, and 90% of a pittence is still a pittence. Zürich, although having lower tax rates has, almost certainly, a high tax take than SH. Therefore it has more money available for services.

It's like if I earn CHF200'000 and am taxed at 20%, and you earn CHF100'000 and are taxed at 30%, the tax take from you is still less than from me, even though your tax rate is higher than mine.

simples.

Have you made your calculation in CHF instead of % as well?

Martin

Here you have a choice where you live and what taxes you pay, like in the US. Does one have a similar choice in the UK?

you can do that here:

http://www.steueramt.zh.ch/cgi-stcalc/StTarifNP99.cgi

http://steuerrechner.sh.ch/steuernnat

As a result, direct taxation in Schaffhausen is higher than in Feuerthalen and Flurlingen.

Martin

not for me being single and childless. also, note the zurich calculator excludes federal tax so you need to adjust for that (or just look at the cantonal, community taxes) do you still get a higher result?

Yes, as an example following the calculation for a childless and nondenominational single person with a taxable net income of CHF 100'000 in 2009:

Flurlingen, ZH:

Basic cantonal tax = 100% = CHF 6'536.00
Municipal tax = 116%

Total tax = 216% = CHF 14'141.75 (including head tax)

Schaffhausen, SH:

Basic cantonal tax = 100% = CHF 8'142.00
Actual cantonal tax = 112% = CHF 9'119.00
Municipal tax = 98% = CHF 7'979.00

Total tax = 210% = CHF 17'158 (including head tax)

Martin

i can see who you got your ZH calc, but what are inputs to the SH one as I didn't get same number. Did you change the religion? the SH calculator defaults to reformiert.

for SH i got:

Total Kantons- und Gemeindesteuer Fr. 14'271.-

which is higher than flurlingen but lower than feuerthalen.

i'll be doing my tax return for the first time soon, so probably will uncover more of the details, but at the moment, i'm not convinced there's a huge difference between the 3 gemeindes (at least not enough to move).

Yes, I use the same basics for both calculators (see attached screenshot):

- single person
- nondenominational
- childless
- taxable net income of CHF 100'000
- tax year 2009

The only Schaffhausen municipality with a slightly lower tax burden than in Flurlingen is Stetten.

Martin

Attached Thumbnails

 

Ah. I see it now. I get:


Flurlingen 14'141
Feuerthalen 14'468
Schaffhausen 17'158

about 3k diff between Flur and Sch

On the other hand, if you're earning 300k taxes are:

Flurlingen 65'204
Feuerthalen 66'712
Schaffhausen 62'430

so schaffhausen is cheaper than zurich and housing is also cheaper. so i guess the lesson is that you can't really generalise and need to look at specific circumstances.

Lodgings in Schaffhausen are much cheaper than in the Zurich area, and cheap German shopping places are relatively close by !

that's true, you can more than save on the tax with the lower living costs - though i don't find the german shopping to be a whole lot cheaper, but there is more variety.

Hi Thread,
it isn't so difficult to understand this kind of things here

it is very simple indeed, in Schaffhausen you pay higher taxes, but the rents are much lower as in Zürich.....so , don't worry too much about

btw, Schaffhausen is very special and has a lots of pitoresk places to see, the people there are close to country people and if they like you , you'll feel like at home ....I guess you will like this little place....and if not, then feel free to ask for a little helping hand

have a nice start into the new week
greetings from
sunnybee