I am told that as a B permit holder, the commune I live in does not make a difference
comparis.ch does show differences

does anyone know the answer?

also, my withholding tax is 17.7% - but my employer insists they are paying employers contributions. Is this the case?

any help welcomed.

It makes no difference for commune unless you fill out a tax return.

tax varies per commune. quellensteuer doesn't.

yes, I will have to complete a tax return

Can you be more precise and provide more detail?

Quellensteuer is tax withheld, and is based on an average communal tax rate across the canton. B permit holders all pay Quellensteuer, from what I understand. If you pay Quellensteuer, I don't think you have to submit any tax documents.

Maybe the communal tax rate comes into play if you submit a tax return, but I'm not too sure of this. Other members of the forum would know for sure.

If you are on Quellensteuer (tax at source, deducted from your paycheck) the tax rate applied is the cantonal average. Thus there is no advantage to living in one commune vs another within the same canton for those who must pay Quellensteuer.

However, once you are not on Quellensteuer (C Permit, or salary over 120,000 (IIRC)* for other permits, the local Gemeinde tax rate applies. And those rates vary quite a bit.

To give you an idea, here is the ZH 2011 Steuerfuss list by Gemeinde:

http://www.steueramt.zh.ch/html/steu...euerfuesse.htm

What this means is that if you earned 150,000 married, no kids, living in Neerach you would pay ca 28,090. Living in Zell you would pay ca 34,093. Same circumstances but making 1,000,000 - Neerach ca 321,316, Zell ca 379,739. (Data from Comparis, YMMV according to your individual situation.)

Or you could move to SZ or ZG and pay quite a bit less than that.

Out of interest, here is Quellensteuer by canton, income of 10,000 pm:

http://www.comparis.ch/steuern/quell...lensteuer.aspx


ETA:

Does the 120,000 Quellensteuer limit still apply? I ask because I noticed that Comparis allows calculations for incomes up to 20,000 pm...

All is good, but why should the employer pay a part of your tax?

They don't, they only act as a withholding agent towards the tax authorities and deduct it from your monthly salary, so it's you who bears it.

Also with a salary above 120KCHF you are on Qst in case of a B permit. On top of that you have the obligation to file a tax return.

Judging by your account name and the poll, it seems that you are accusing Elan - your employer - of malpractice/illegal behaviour. I hope you can substatiate that...

I was also concerned, my salary is above 120 and i'm married with a daughter, they are only taking 17.9% from me though 27.5% from my wife.


It seems like I will have to file a tax return as well and will owe more. I see on Credit Suisse calculator it is around 23-26% depending on deductions and in total for commune canton and federal.

also as an American, I am concerned because I get a credit for foreign taxes paid. So if they don't withold enough I think I end up with a bill from the US and from Switzerland both.

Unmarried, no kids, salary >120 and they're withholding 25%. Then there's some smaller taxes and all the deductions add up to about 35%.

It could be worse I suppose.

Well, you should be able to deduce the net foreign taxes paid (well, the net foreign paid on income over the foreign earned income exemption, but that is a different discussion) and the US shouldn't care about whether the Swiss taxes were withheld at source or paid at tax time. Doesn't change the fact that there might be two bills due though.