Hi All,

Just wondering if the lower taxes in Switzerland are worth it compared to Germany with its lower cost of living for families.

BR
GL

I did the comparison but my situation is not your situation. A colleague of mine in a very different family situation did it too and he is really better off in Basel than Lörrach. In Germany, you can't know you taxes without an expert. So ask the big guys with Steuerberater written on the door, otherwise, you'll forget something and the calculation will be wrong. Married/unmarried and renting/buying make a big difference but will be different for each of us. The rest can only be sorted out by the already mentioned big guys. It is not only worth it for me, it is also a choice to live in Germany rather than Switzerland independently from the money issue.

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Es wird nichts ausgelassen, um mich hier herauszuekeln. Ein Lehrbuch. False accusations and attacks continue. There is no stopping righteous people when they are wrong.

Is the quality of life better in Switzerland then for families?

Im just trying to get a handle on the pros and cons. When you see your netto
salary it can be disheartening, but then rents and cars and so forth seem very reasonable and food shopping is pretty cheap.
Also kindergarten is just a couple of hundred per month.

You can't do that the quick way online.
1. Take your salary slips and insurance invoices to a tax councilor in Lörrach/Weil and have him state how much your disposable income would be.
2. Find out how much housing would cost you on German side.
3. Ask Helsana how much their Grenzgänger health insurance is for your family
4. sum up the extra costs of education, car etc… (whatever is important to you)

Compare 1 through 4 with the same in Switzerland in both Basel Stadt and Baselland. If you have time, try also neighboring Solothurn.

Let the numbers speak if the numbers are important to you. If you are ready to take into account other criteria than money, put that into the equation and don't forget to ask your family what life style they want too. I personally hate green leaves so I won't be looking for a nice garden or forest in my neighbourhood but you might.

For school, it's a matter of taste. I would prefer German schooling for my children, I preferred French school for myself and I prefer Swiss school as a teacher. But that's just me, feel free to do it differently.

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Es wird nichts ausgelassen, um mich hier herauszuekeln. Ein Lehrbuch. False accusations and attacks continue. There is no stopping righteous people when they are wrong.

For a 2+3 family with 100k gros p.a. in cheap place like Aarau-Lenzburg you'll not save anything, and that's just for average housing, car and no eating-out, no vacation in hotels/resorts etc.
Don't forget to add health insurance on top of the taxes.
It is financially better if you would make well above this threshold - the tax isn't that progressive and health insurance is a constant.

BTW: I wonder what is an equivalent middle-class gross salary in Germany - one which covers typical expenses of such a family in a not-a-metropole city.

so an 80k eur salary gross goes further than 100k chf in switzerland? (not in metropole)?

I think Germany will win 3-1

Taxes, costs (including rental, etc) can vary hugely from region to region.

yea, so is there any comparisons available?

I saw rental prices usually twice that of Germany and usually smaller so i guess ive answered my own question!

No there is no fit-them-all comparison available. Everybody makes choices on highly irrational feelings on top of the rational pro/cons little chart you seem to be so keen on. It's like Apple/Samsung.

If familly is the big thing for you, then ask youself in which country do you want your children to go to school. Working in Basel gives you four possibilities:
- German school living in Germany
- French school living in France
- Swiss school living in Switzerland
- one of the private schools with either half English or full English speaking education, living anywhere.

Those four options are VERY different for your children. Teacher speaking here.

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Es wird nichts ausgelassen, um mich hier herauszuekeln. Ein Lehrbuch. False accusations and attacks continue. There is no stopping righteous people when they are wrong.

Yes, as has been said, there is no clear answer on the financials. Depends a lot on the details. Generally, the more you earn, the more Switzerland is likely to be the winner for you.

However, let me the first to point out that there is an elephant in the room. There's more to life than the bottom line, and while this is a admittedly a subjective opinion, living in Germany is not particularly pleasant.

Opinion is the word, indeed. Here is mine: I love living in Germany around Basel.
But both opinions are irrelevant to the OP, nothing replaces one's own experience on that issue.

Thanks for the info guys.

What are peoples (subjective i know) pros and cons for living in swiss v germany?

If i moved to swiss, id guess my salary would remain roughly the same but would be a higher take home. But expenses probably alot cheaper, rent, kindergarten, food, car etc. in GER.

Are the work opportunities greater in swiss?

How general do you want the answers to be?
How meaningful do you want them to be?

Hint: both questions are linked.

What do you do?

Which Swiss languages do you speak?

Tom

I was thinking just generally but, accounting field and english and german languages.

thanks for any input.

You mean, your salary would be roughly the same in Germany and in Switzerland?
I.e. your current salary is 100k € and you'd get 125k CHF in Switzerland?
That would be ... interesting.
Do you actually have any job offers?

80K eur and roughly 100K CHF.

no offers or anything, just taking look at open job offers.

I agree, this is rather an unlikely setup in most fields. Generally you'd expect a higher gross salary in Switzerland than in Germany. If it is really the case, then you'd probably be financially better off in Germany unless you're earning a fair bit.

But we don't have any numbers to work with. Tax rates are pretty easy to get hold of from the cantonal tax authorities' websites by the way, if you want to do your own comparison.

Yeah, 80k is a good salary in Germany and 100k is only a middling salary in Switzerland. You'd probably get quite a shock when you saw how far 100k (doesn't) go.