Hi,

I wondered whether anybody could advise on tax relief for international school fees?

We are moving to the Zurich area coming from UK and there is no other option for our daughter to join the International school.

My (Swiss) company is not (yet) willing to pay the school fee, and I wondered whether we could apply for tax relief???

Thanks for any advise.

- Juup Willemse -

Having first hand experience of this I can tell you are welcome to apply but that it will not be allowed - you will get the standard 6000 CHF tax free for each child.

If your company does pay the school fees then the tax authorities will add this to your salary when calculating tax.

Yiu may have a better chance if it's a short term contract.

I feel particularly peeved because the local school could not offer my 15 year old daughter a place so we were forced to go for a private school - it was not through choice.

But why is it the only option for your daughter?

Dear Swissbob,

Thanks for your reply. We did not want our daughter to go to a local and German speaking school as we feared too much disruption in her education. Hence we choose the ZIS.

Rgds,

- Juup -

Well that depends on your plans. If you will stay in Switzerland then it's probably the wrong choice - if you are here short term then as long as you are happy with the IB (the schools will tell you it's the same as GCSE and A levels - we experienced it, it's not) and the standards of the school then it's a logical move. I guess that also applies if your daughter is past the age where langauge comes free - 13 or 14.

As you obviously don't mind the extortionate fees (it's education only for heavens sake and they charge boarding levels) another alternative would be a bilingual school - these provide the best of both worlds and are better value for money.

Just jumping in on this thread to ask a related question - my husband's prospective employer doesn't pay school fees either, and I'm wondering what kind of salary we might be needing to support a child at bilingual school?

From what I can see they all seem to cost around the 22,000, and I know I've seen salary discussions before. I guess what I'm asking is what _are_ you living on whilst paying school fees, not what do you think you'd need? I hope this isn't too personal a question. Thanks in advance.

Lets put this another way without getting into discussions about how much people earn. If you are earning less than 100K you will not be able to afford to send a child to a private school. You can then add 35K per extra child. That is a minimum ie you will not have a great life. Here a breakdown per month:

School per child: 2000
Accommodation: 2000+
Social Conts. 1000
Tax: 1500
Health: 500 +120 per child
That is 7K.
That leaves you with 1300 for food and heating and electricity and phone and clothes and ...
I am sure based on this you can see how much you need to earn.

Thanks for that breakdown Richard! I really appreciate it.

One other thing I never mentioned is that often the Kantons make a contribution to the private schooling given that you don't take up one of their places - thus they save money. Dont expect too much though it will be around the SFr 1000 per year and child...

Lisaebcal, the local Swiss school is free.

You maintain bilingual abilities by speaking only your mother tongue at home.

You save an awful lot of money.

Children get a 2nd (and 3rd, our boy is now into his 4th) language for free.

Surely it's a no-brainer?

But it does of course depend on the age of the children... And the school you get to put them in...

If considering International (single language) Schools then yes, age of children can be a factor, but in this situation, bilingual schools, it's not so important. As for the local schools, you're right, and we were (and are) extremely lucky.

I was actually referring only to the local state schools on the grounds that if your children are over say 9 they will be seriously disadvantaged in comparison to local children for the rest of their lives potentially... If you are not a master of the local language by the age of 11 you are not going to be in the grammar school stream and thus your education will be, shall we say, limited...

Lisaebcal was talking bilingual .

Actually, it's also not true that the cutoff is 11. In our locality the children go up to secondary school at 12/13 and then they have another chance to get up to grammar school at the end of their first or second year.

And even if they don't get into grammar school they can do an extra (10th) year of school and then be on the same "level" (depending on the school) as grammar school kids...That's what I did and it worked out fine for me...

Hi

Thought I'd bump this. I wonder if anyone can answer a very simple question. I live in BL on a C permit. If I send a child to a fee paying school can I claim any sort of tax relief on the fees.

From experience, no.

Why should the government and the Kanton give you tax break for your choice to pay more for schooling?

You will get the 6000 CHF per year relief like everyone else.

I think there is mileage in allowing parents who do not burden the state system with their offspring being given some sort of tax break on private education, which they are after all paying with money that has already been taxed.

But the tax authorities don't agree with me...

Can't people with their own company expense the cost of childcare and school fees? That's what one accountant I saw in Zug said. "Unfortunately, you have a pay slip" he said. "Otherwise I could get you an extra 20k in deductions"

No, they can't.