Hi guys

I am currently in Zurich on a student B-permit (non-EU). Last year, I had a short term (<3 months) part-time job and made a few thousand CHF. I was taxed at source (Quellensteuer?), and each time, it was around 0.5%. At the end of my job, I was hit with an extra 15% quellensteuer by my employer to compensate for the fact that it was a "short contract" (according to him), which pretty much took up my entire last paycheck. I was wondering if (1) this is normal and (2) it would be possible to get any of this money back since I made so little within the year, i.e. is there a low-income tax bracket where you don't have to pay at all? Sorry if this last question seems foolish, but in Canada, where I'm from, anyone with income below ~17K can claim back nearly all income tax money.

Thanks in advance!

The monthly quellensteuer amount should come straight off a table issued each year the canton of your employer and which are available on-line so you can check for yourself.

Since it is calculated monthly and not cumulatively (eg like UK PAYE) you should never have a situation that results in all of your income going. Unlesss of course they corrected an error of previous months.

You do have to pay some extra social taxes.

Here is the link to the ZH canton table. If you are single this is the table for 2007 http://www.steueramt.zh.ch/html/steu...if_a_QSt06.pdf (read the first column if you have no kids and the version without kirchesteuer assuming you declared no religion)

0.5% is correct for salaries in the month upto 1700chf. To be taxed 15% you would have to earn 13000chf in that month.