I've worked in Switzerland for 7 years and accumulated a company pension fund (2nd pillar) and volutary 3rd pillar. This year I proceeded to take both 2nd & 3rd pillar money out of Switzerland, however I was charged a withholding tax on exiting the "system". The trick is that the WHT tax rate is different in different cantons. So I transferred both my 2nd pillar and 3rd pillar to a pension fund foundation in Schwyz, where the WHT tax rate is around 5%, versus the 6% in the original fund. The fund is called www.PensFree.ch (excellent service btw). Once my money was in PensFree, I then transferred it out of Switzerland - it cost me 5% + 0.6% fee.

The exercise was beneficial as all the contributions I made in the past was tax free (saving me at least marginal 30%) and I was only charged 5.6%.

Bottom line - if you work in Switzerland and will one day leave - CRANK up the pension contribution!