Hi - we are an Irish man & Russian woman with a 3 year old child. Looking to move to Zurich in the next 6 months for a few reasons;
Life style
Centre of Europe for travel
Low tax
Low Crime
Good health care

We have been on a fact finding mission to Zurich and really liked it. We still have some questions to verify;
Q1: Is tax in Zurich generally between 15 and 20%?
Q2: Is child care really that expensive? I am told CHF2,500 per month for a creche/pre-school and CHF1,000 for lunch & after school care until 6pm in school. This is twice as expensive than Ireland.

Q3: Is health care that expensive? I am told full good cover is about CHF900 per month for our family (about 4 times more expensive than Ireland - although we have no health service here I guess).

Q4: What is the deal with communal washing machines? Is it a big deal if we install our own inside our apartment?

Q5: For ex-pats like us, what are the best areas to live in - our budget would be about CHF2,500 per month for a 3 room apartment (2 bedrooms). We would like to live among a few ex-pats so that the local schools etc. are welcoming.

Any help appreciated.......

Cheers!

I can't comment on the Zurich-specific questions about tax or where best to live, but you seem to have done your research well. The figure you give for health care sounds a little bit high (300 to 350 CHF a month for an adult would be about right, but it should be cheaper for the child). Child care is indeed exorbitant - there aren't anywhere near enough creche places, which pushes prices up.

The communal washing machine thing is fine if you live in a building where you can wash whenever you like, and where the machine isn't shared by too many people. Some buildings have a rota system though, where you can only wash on set days or half-days - make sure you ask about this when visiting flats. Whether or not you can install your own machine is at the landlord/agency's discretion - there again, it's something to ask about when you visit.

Hi there - good luck with the move.

Q1 - sounds right. If you are on a B permit, tax will be withheld at source and as your combined income is over the threshold (and I assume you are married to each other) you will complete a tax return each year and receive a refund (or additional bill) for the difference. There are tables which will tell you exactly how much will be withheld from your respective salaries based on the tarif (probably "B" in your case) each month. www.steueramt.ch

Q2. You are correct. It will cost at least that much for full time care of your child. This is because rent and staff costs here (salaries, pension, insurances)
are expensive here and the daycares have much higher costs. There are also strict building & fire regulations to be adhered to maintain a licence and this can mean a big investment of cash up front. Thus the higher costs. I know this business and daycares charging this much actually still have low margins. That is the reason for the shortage of them too. See www.kinderkrippen-online.ch for information about availability of child care places.

Q3 Again, what you state for a family of 3 sounds right to me. There are ways to get it down by increasing your so called "franchise" or insurance excess as we know it. THis means you meet a higher part of the up front costs yourself. That is what I do, but with a child (and potentially frequent visits to the doctor) this may not be the right solution for you to get the premium down. See www.comparis.ch wher you can compare premiums of different companies.

Q4. This can be okay or a nightmare depending on the particular building you are in and the neighbours. You could ask when viewing apartments if you could install. You would be expected to return the apartment in the exact same condition you found, or the renters who take it over from you, take over the responsibility for removing the washing at the end of their contract.

Q5 - how long is a piece of string ? There are many great places in Kanton Zurich to live and this is a very personal decision based on where you work and availability of child care & schools in the area which you choose. Here is the property portal which has alot of additional information on this topic.
www.homegate.ch & www.sbb.ch or www.zvv.ch will show you how long the commute will be from the properties which you like the look of.

Enjoy your time here. It is a wonderful place to live and bring up children.

Post again and let us know how you get on.

I've moved this from Daily Life where it certainly doesn't belong to Introductions where it certainly doesn't belong either.
However, as members have been so hard-working answering all the questions which belong in separate sections elsewhere, I'll not delete and ask for a re-write dividing it all up neatly as I might otherwise have done.

Welcome to the Forum from a slightly frustrated Moderator - frustrated because all the lovely accurate answers will not be found by diligent new members who use the search function as they won't be looking here for the info they need. Mind you, you needn't feel too guilty about it. You are in good company and the search function seems to be a book with seven seals (all of them closed) to most folk.

Enjoy Switzerland. It is a wonderful place to live (please ignore today's lowland rain).

I found the tax calculator on the site I gave you earlier. You put in the place you are living. Your yearly income and the value of your net assets and it gives you a quick calculation which includes Federal as well as local "Gemeinde" tax. You may also be liable to a small church tax if you register as catholic or protestant (as opposed to "konfessionlos" - no religoun).

http://www.steueramt.zh.ch/internet/...uerbetrag.html

Also remember - low crime is not no crime. I have had friends who have been burgled (in Affoltern, 8046 City of Zurich & in Birmensdorf) and who have been pickpocketed in the Cities of Zurich & Baden.

Also another tip, if you take out a household insurance policy or third party liability policy - be careful to have a friend fluent in the language to check contracts before you sign. Do not be duped into signing a contract for 3, 5 or even 10 years & not being able to switch insurers while you live here - if it is not what you want. Compare premiums on comparis.ch Apparently something called Halfpflichtversicherung (personal third party liability insurance) is recommended and it is quite cheap about CHF 95 per year per household. I personally find the household insurance premiums a bit of a con & cancelled mine (after the 10 year term had elapsed...aaarggg!).


Longbyt - I am sorry, not sure what I can do to help here - i will never get to the grips with the mysteries of the Forum.

It's not really a mystery. The forum is divided up into subforums so that the info on any specific subject is in a specific area. For any other member, having done a search for a specific word or phrase which is connected with the info he needs and which occurs in this thread, it means wading through post after post which may totally and utterly irrelevant to his requirements.

From the original poster's point of view, when replies come from various people replying to a different part of the original post, it can be quite confusing too. Putting the answers on any one subject together afterwards can be quite a puzzle.

don't forget that there are deductibles other than tax. i always use 70% of gross salary to work out net as a rough guideline.

So the OP should have 1) introduced himself in the Introductions section. 2) Then I presume searched the various sub-sections and threads to find the answers to his questions. 3) If he does not find the answers he is looking for on existing threads - post a different thread for each of his questions which belong in that particular forum / sub-section ?

I guess it is understandable from a newbies perspective and I would have saved myself the trouble & left it in "Daily Life", where people are more likely to stumble across it.

There do still remain mysteries in this forum though. Present form can be very sociable (& unsociable with some of the users trolling around looking for newbies to harrass). I just discovered after years of using the forum there ARE buttons to report some of the harrassment and rudeness that goes on here though I know the moderators see most of it and will turn a blind eye and even sometimes join in! Anyhow apologies for going off topic here.

I would prefer a more factual "wikipedia" like approach on important matters of ex-pat life. On the other hand the forum is extremely sociable and I have found great members of the ex-pat coummunity to work with on many projects. So overall my impressions are positive. Apologies again for going off topic.

I have a Canadian friend who was working in Switzerland then moved to Ireland, so he saw the image the other way around than you.

He found that Irish properties are quiet cheaper, where with the same appartment rent you can rent a complete furnished house in Athlon where he stayed.

He said that health insurance in Ireland is almost nothing compared to Switzerland, but Swiss Quality is higher

One important thing he mentioned, weather in Switzerland is ages better than weather in Ireland.

I cannot recommend more than what is already recommended to you in terms of websites and such stuff but I can summarise that living as a single or only married in Switzerland is great - living with just born to few years aged kids will cost you a lot.

Hope my answer helps, Kind Regards

Thanks to all for the detailed answers. And apologies to the moderator for the way I placed the questions!

Answers are excellent and confirm what I was told. The lower tax seems to be cancelled out by the high cost of living. But it still seems like a great place to live.

Thanks also for all the useful links.

Thanks again!

Still off-topic - If anyone checks out the Sticky Threads at the top of practically every forum section, there is a great deal of basic information - including many links to the official government or local sites.
I think if was very, very kind of you to help the new member so comprehensively. The down side is that the new member still has no idea that this information was all on here already and may, in future, tend to ask again instead of searching first. The helpful replies simply encourage others to ask their questions in the same manner as in this Thread. Even someone as patient as you are will only keep this help up for a certain length of time before the enthusiasm begins to pall. This is, after all, one reason why some of the old hands on here are rather 'short' with new members' many questions. They've seen it all before.

I see you have very good advice so far. But I find the comments about comparing cost of living in Ireland to Switzerland quite interesting. I'm assuming you have the same salary in Ireland, is that correct? What are the taxes in Ireland? What other deductions are taken from your salary?

Good luck with your move & welcome to the forum!

Hi. Tax is high in Ireland. It is also overly complex.

On a good salary of about €70,000 you can expect to pay about 40% from your gross salary. The tax is taken using complex bands up to 41% at the higher level. There is also compulsory social insurance - which is also very complicated. To be honest you would need to be an accountant to figure it out.

For other life stuff to compare to Zurich, in Dublin;
A nice 2 bedroom apartment (you guys call them 3 room I think) will cost about €1,000.
Private Health insurance for one person is about €1,000 per person per YEAR.
Full time Child care for one child is about €900.

For me the three above are the big ticket differences between Dublin and Zurich.

Litre of petrol is currently €1.50
A pint (little more than .5 Litre) of beer is €5
Dinner for two with a bottle of wine in an Ok place will cost you about €80

However, getting ANYWHERE outside Ireland requires a plane (obviously). Do not underestimate the freedom you have living in central Europe with a car and a good train service.