Hi all,
I'm trying to work out my salary from last year (partly paid in Euros, complicated story!) and am coming up with a number of discrepancies (apart from the bloody exchange rate!) so am wondering if I am treating my 13th month salary correctly in my sums.
Does anyone really understand how the 13th month works? Do I get this over and above my salary - I get my monthly salary 13 times? Or is it as a percentage...or what? Help!
thanks, elli

Yes, it should be an actual 13th month's pay - depending of course when you started work during the year (then it will be scaled accordingly)
Check your contract for details.

A 13th salary is normally nothing more than your annual salary payed out in 13 installments. My employer gives us our 13th at the end of and with the 11th month salary.

Your gross salary is divided by 13, and paid in equal installments January - November. In December, you receive the 12th and 13th installments. Rather than a percentage as stuff, or even a bonus, it's simply part of your salary as you have earned. As mentioned, you receive it pro rata with respect to the number of months of the year you worked.

ok, so if I know my monthly salary I can just times that by 13 and et voila? I don't have an annual income as a figure in my contract, I have a monthly figure. I'll check out my contract too.

I hate adding up but thanks for the quick response

Some companies pay 13th month in two instalments, one in June, one in Dec - I don't know if that applies to you, were your June and Dec salaries higher than other months?

If you pay tax at source, your tax percentage will be different the month you get your 13th month paid out as it brings you up to a higher tax rate bracket.

So, would it be that 13 month salaries could cost you more tax, than if you were getting an equivalent 12-month salary?

I don't see how.

Plus, if it did make a big difference, the Swiss would have done away
with the 13th Month paycheck long ago.

If you pay tax at source (which of course no Swiss do) and don't file a tax declaration, it makes a difference. Tax at source is always based on the monthly income _including_ bonus and 13th month.

Yes, unless you are filing a tax declaration.

I am a postdoc from India, and I am taxed at source. Is there anything I could do to possibly save a bit on the taxes?

I would be glad if you could give me some pointers... Thanks!

Use the search function on the forum. There is loads written about Quellensteuer and Tax at source here.

To my knowledge (thanks to self employment I don't do my own taxes)
every cent earned is taxed.... L, B or C... Quellensteuer or Tax forms.

13th Month is earned income.

Of course it is taxed. I don't think anyone has said anything else. The issue is how much it is taxed.

http://www.steueramt.zh.ch/html/erla...ter/w_qst1.htm

Paragraph 34 and 36

Right. Quellensteuer is paid according to the amount earned. Simple.

Your answer to the question above was interpreted as, "the 13th could
cost more than the equivalent spread out over 12 months, unless you
fill out the tax declaration."

No problem! We are all on the same sheet of music here

Actually, that is exactly what I am saying.

for your 13th month (I'm getting good at this!) you don't pay into the second pillar of the pension scheme and only a token amount into the accident insurance and sick pay fund. That's how it is for me anyway. So you get more take home pay from your 13th salary. If it gets paid of course. The reason my sums weren't working out is that my boss has forgotten to pay me the summer half in 2008, guess who got his knuckles rapped today?

I think you may actually. The company reports your yearly salary to the BVG which usually is including 13th and/or bonus and based on that they calculate 12 installments that you have to pay every month. So you are right that they don't deduct this amount twice when you get your 13th but the 13th is part of the base for calculating your BVG (which is good for you).

AHV, ALV, KKT and UVG is all a percentage of your total salary for that month (i.e. incl 13th). However, ALV is only paid up to a yearly salary of 106'000 CHF.

but that seems to depend on how you pay your tax etc. I pay mine like the humble swiss employee that I have become, by filling in a tax declaration every year and as monthly contributions from my salary. Seems like a lot of people on here pay/get salary paid in a totally different way. Is this because you're working for international companies?