Hi All,

I received a letter today (Staats- und Gemeindesteuern 2010) for my tax and I think what it is, is a provisional estimate of my tax liability for 2010. I have been billed approx CHF 1500 for 'Steuerperiode 2010' payable in September and December this year in instalments.

I'm not quite sure I understand what this means. I only arrived in CH at the end of June, so not sure what these figures relate to. I had used the tax calculator before I even arrived here provided by Credit Suisse and the results showed that I would be liable for far more taxes than the above , which is why I am even more confused with the letter.

Does anyone have an experience of this or can explain what this means? As a bit of background, I am not liable to tax at source as I am married to a Swiss (who has lived in England for the most part of his life so he too like me, does not really understand the system).

I'd be very grateful if someone could shed a bit more light on the above please. Is this amount a payment on account like it is done in the UK on the Self Assessment Tax regime? If so, how is the payment on account figure calculated/arrived at? I know in the UK, your payment on account is basically 50% of your prior years tax liability. Surely this cannot be the case here, as I have no prior year taxes in CH?

Apologies for the long post and also, if this topic has been covered off previously, I'd be very grateful for a link to the posts.

Thanks for reading

M..

Most people not on Quellensteuer are sent a provisional tax return when they move to CH in which you declare your expected income for the current year. This is then used to generate a provisional tax bill for the current year - all current year tax bills are effectively payments on account. You can pay the lot in one go in or before September (they pay you interest if it's before the end of Sept) or in two lots in Sept and Dec (in which case you pay them interest on the amount paid after september). You will then be sent a proper tax return early next year to complete either by the end of March or later in the year if you apply for an extension (very usual), on the basis of (the assessment of) which you will either have more to pay or a rebate due or be fully settled up. In the case of a split year when you move to the country they'll use your entire year's salary both here and there to determine the tax rate then apply that rate to the proportion earned in CH for the period you were in CH. Remember that married couples are taxed as a unit, not individually

The reason the figures are probably low is that the Staats- und Gemeindesteuern bill is only one part of your liability - the other is Direkte Bundesstuer (roughly 2/3 for the former and 1/3 for the latter). That caught us out when we switched to C permits because we were never sent bills for the Direkte Bundessteuer - forgive us for thinking Staats- referred to federal; it isn't, it's canton - and ended up with a 20k federal bill for 3 years payable within 30 days

ETA if you didn't complete a provisional tax return, then this is definitely just a token amount on account so expect to have to pay more!

Many thanks for the explanation. Definitely makes sense to me now. Although the fact that I wasn't sent a provisional tax return to complete makes me wonder if this provisional tax estimate is based on some "finger in the air" methodology..hmm

x