Hello there,

I throw this out there as my HR department looked at me quite blankly this morning when I asked (a "bunny in the headlight" moment!) about it and they were even unable to point me towards the right section of a website ... I have been working here in Züri for 18 months now on an EU-B permit as a single gal. However, my boyfriend (French) of 5 years has now proposed and I am now considering the tax implications (if any) this might involve. The issue for me is that he lives and works in France (we are a 750 km long-distance couple) and we have no immediate, foreseeable plans for co-habitating in CH for these reasons (work).

Does anyone happen to know if I am I obligated to change my marital status when we finally "do it" or should I leave all as status quo? I popped on to the Steueramt site and tapped in my income etc., and "married" definitely gives me a big tax break - but my question is now whether or not the spouse has to be a permit-holding resident? It does not change the fact that I will be status "married" legally speaking, but...

If the answer is on the site then sorry in advance my German is not fine-tuned enough to understand everything in its entirety, and, as I mentioned, my HR almost had a panic attack when I posed the question...

Any feedback hugely appreciated!

Cheerio,

Fiona

"Married" gives you a tax break?

Hi Shorrick...

It came up that way for me (one of those tax/ calculators, the same happened in the UBS tax rate site) - the tax amount that I would pay normally was decreased by a few 000's. Actually, the same for the Quellensteurer tables. E.g. married, no church tax and 1 or more kids starts to shrink the QS to be paid.

Okay firstly you have probably made a small oversight. But lets start at the beginning.

If you get married you are obliged to inform your local town hall of this change and the relevant change in your tax status. If the whole thing occurs abroad then you can ask whether it is possible that they find out and I would doubt it but you are legally obliged to inform the authorities.

This event does indeed change your tax status. It will be most interesting to see if this is negative or positive. I would not be so sure that this will be a positive thing for you. Do not forget you will be dealing with international tax laws. Under Swiss law you are obliged to state your global income and they will want to know the amount your husband (when you get that far) earns. There is a tax-agreement between France and Switzerland but exactly what that says for this situation I do not know. I personally would cross this bridge when you come to it.

As a tip. Be very careful who you get to deal with this. You need to be sure of your rights as I am guessing that your local town hall probably does not know exactly what the answer is. You need to make sure that you do not trust any old financial advisor but a qualified tax expert.

Hi Richard...

Thanks very much for this, you are indeed confirming my suspicions. As with everything bureacratic here I do try to be very, very careful... and would certainly not discuss anything with my gemeinde without, as you rightly point out, very sound and thorough (read=expert) council.

fiona