I am a non-EU/EFTA, B-permit holder working for a Swiss firm and earning well below the EF average of 120K. My wife isn't employed. I get my x% Quellensteuer deducted from source.

We had our first baby girl in April 2013. I was now eligible for y% Quellensteuer where y < x. My employer was informed immediately, but for reasons of unexpected documentation to be sourced from my home country, the birth certificate for my baby took almost 6 months to materialize. So by the end of October 2013 I submitted the birth certificate, and also the child allowance form to my employer. My employer, as what I would consider logical too, in October's salary reimbursed the extra tax (x - y%) deducted from April to September.

With child allowance, I was now eligible for z% Quellensteuer where y < z < x. In November's salary I started getting the child allowance. The backlog from April to October also came together in this salary. I got taxed at a higher rate than z because of this. Everything as per expectation up till now.

However, this year my employer tells me, that as per the tax office, they were completely wrong with the tax calculation and will have to make corrections. They took away all the extra tax that they had reimbursed in October (x - y%), saying that as per the tax office I am eligible for y (and eventually z) only after I provided the birth certificate and the child allowance request. Does this sound logical to anyone? I want to request for a reconsideration of this decision by filing my tax returns for the first time in the last 3 years that I have been here. Am I wasting my time or do I have some hope?

Hi,

Unfortunately this was the case for me too, so it seems that's how it is.
Basically I got my quellen steuer lowered only when steueramt was officially notified about me having kids (and no reimbursement was given for the time in between).

Thanks for your reply Jaceq... did you try claiming back the tax by filing your Steuererklärung? I haven't done this ever, so it will be a first for me... my employer said that I should do it nevertheless to get some tax back which gets unnecessarily deducted because of my 13th salary in December... I'm hoping to try and claim both things together... don't even know whether I'm doing the right thing or not... :what:

Fill simplified declaration.
Over.

You have to push your case and write letters and go see them. That they would only make the change after the borth ceritficate is registered is normal but of course they should correct for the whole year.


Go talk to the tax office.


K

Oversimplied answer. Not over!

Ok my next steps have been as follows:
- Filled up the "request for subsequent tax re-assessment" form for individuals taxed at source from Antrag nachträglich ordentlich Veranlagung and sent it by email to the Berne tax authorities.
- Received a signed confirmation in 2 days, with the instructions to wait for tax return forms that they are sending, or to use TaxMe offline for filing the returns.

I have installed the TaxMe application and am filling it page by page. There are provisions for asking for various deductions for expenses for eg. public transport tickets for reaching work, health insurance premiums, etc. I don't even know if I am eligible for these deductions as a Quellensteuer paying individual. I shall approach my employer for help here.

Talk you said... as in <gulp> talk in German... <breaks into a sweat>

Read "simplified declaration" explanation document.
Over.

PS: in your canton it seems to be called differently.
You need to do: “retrospective ordinary assessment”:
http://www.portal.sites.be.ch/portal...ensteuer_e.pdf
http://www.portal.sites.be.ch/portal...dividuals.html

PS2: you're not supposed to do "taxme" application like normal citizen or citizen with C permis.

PS3: talk in German? I found the official document in English, kindly provided by Swiss authorities even though English it's not their official language. Try harder your search...
<breaks into a pedantic state of happiness>

Ahh yes I saw this English document later after making the post. Infact this is the form that I filled up and that I mentioned in my previous post. I just made up the translation of the form's name as per my understanding, although I see that I was a bit off from the exact meaning.

But this is what I was instructed to do by the Berne tax authorities, in the reply to my "retrospective ordinary assessment" request... they said that the TaxMe online thing is for normal individuals not taxed at source, but TaxMe offline is for all other individuals, including individuals taxed at source...

Quite true... they have a couple of English documents on their official website http://www.fin.be.ch/fin/de/index.html... but honestly that's where it ends... I am hoping I can find somebody who speaks English if I visit them, but on the phone, all I was met with was "Nein, leider nicht..." to the question... I can manage a bit of German, but this topic is too complicated for me to have a legible conversation in any language other than English... even then, I shall pay them a visit and hopefully that might help out... I'll post back my experience for future reference...

My bad then-
Like I said it depends on Cantons-
I know 3 cantons who use only the "simplified form" and not the software. Obviously, Bern is different.

To keep the thread information updated, I am listing out the steps that I went through:
- Back in March I filled up the "request for retrospective ordinary tax assessment" form for individuals taxed at source from Antrag nachträglich ordentlich Veranlagung and sent it by email to the Berne tax authorities.
- I received a signed confirmation in 2 days, with the instructions to wait for tax return forms that they shall send in spring, or to use TaxMe offline for filing the returns.
- I then tried filling out the TaxMe offline myself, and found it to be not that complicated. This is partly because I always filed my tax returns on my own back in my home country, so I knew how these forms work.
- For avoiding any probably mistakes, I searched for a tax consultant on http://www.treuhandvergleich.ch/ and found one with a reasonable flat-rate fee. The consultant came home, heard me out and took my documents.
- Within 15 days he sent back the completed tax returns (printed out using TaxMe offline), and they were almost similar to how I would have filled them. He did make a few more entries which I wouldn't have known, so the money was well spent.
- Posted the tax returns to the Bernese tax authorities, and now I am awaiting the tax refund. No clue how long that shall take.

Watching with interest as my husband has been taxed as a single man since he arrived in November.We have jumped through many hoops and provided many pieces of information only to be told they will pay us Swiss family allowance only we I arrive with kids .they will pay the difference between this and the Belgian payment ,however they will tax us on that!
Feeling frustrated !

That's totally normal. You can't claim full family allowance in both countries. If you weren't being paid the Belgian family allowance you would have received the full amount here, as it is they will just top it up to the Swiss level as Switzerland is more generous than Belgium. You will get the full allowance here once you stop receiving the Belgian one.
Family allowance is taxable income here so of course you have to pay tax on it. I can't remember whether it was tax free or not in Belgium.

It depends on where you live as far as tax status goes. In most cantons both spouses have to live here to be taxed as a married couple. Neuchatel is one if the few exceptions and OH was taxed as married for the 18 months that we were still living in Belgium and he was here.

Hello Varun,

Its nice to hear that you got backlog as well. Do you know any relevant law in this regard when baby was born abroad(non EU) ? I was even told by HR that I will eligible for child allowance only when baby register here.

Thanks!!

What is the issue? Yes, its correct they will pay you the diff between the Belgian allowance and the Swiss. Yes its correct it is taxable.

I think you didn't read my post till the end. I did receive the backlog but...
Anyways my next update is that the tax office processed my tax returns and found me correctly eligible for a refund. This refund is approximately the same amount as the backlog which was taken away from me, so all in all it was a great idea to file my tax returns. I hope it is clear that I am taxed at source (Quellensteuer), hence filing tax returns is not mandatory for me.