Hi,
When I'm doing calculation of my net salary I often get that tickbox with withholding tax.


Assuming the only income will be from salary in Zurich and I'm Polish national living in London... I mean planning to move permanently to Switzerland.


Is Withholding tax applicable for all people who are working in Switzerland (immigrants) ?

Yes, for at least the first 5 years, employees are taxed at source. Just as people in the UK are. The rate is the average for the Canton the employee is living in.

Usually after 5 years the employee has to submit a tax return every January. Then he receives tax demands from the state, the canton, & the town where he lives. He might pay more tax in total, or it might be less than his previous with-holding tax .

Welcome to the Forum.

Ah.. thank you.
One more question

My contract will be in Zurich in the centre but Im thinking about living in Zug.. will my tax be paid based on taxes from Zurich as i will be working there?

If you earn over 10k a month you will end up being taxed as a normal person where you live rather than average withholding tax rate

You'll be taxed by your canton of residence, i.e. Zug

For clarity - if you earn over 120k pa you will have to complete a tax return, but you will still pay withholding tax until you have a c-permit/marry a Swiss. Your payments are credited against your tax return and you pay or receive the diffeeence.

Point to note that once you have started declaring your taxes, you will carry on declaring it forever even if your salary goes less than 120K CHF.

But then, if you have to declare, there is no way around it

Working for 1 month & earning 10001, will require a tax return. Stating 120k a year confuses new residents as the assume if the earn 115,000 in 11 months they will be exempt.


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Moving to C Permit and not paying withholding tax is a definite step backwards as having tax automatically deducted is so much more practical

I don´t mind, gives me the chance to skip one month and pay more the next. Normally I just try and get it done with in the first half year.

Do you have a link to that?
I earned over 10k per month in the first month I lived here (August 2009), but under 120k for the year of 2009. I was not allowed to fill in a tax return despite wanting to. In fact they were very arsey about me trying to claim education expenses that year (to the point I gave up).

The rule is not whether you've earned 10k+ in any single month or not. Instead they calculate pro rata what would your yearly income be had you stayed the whole year here. They take the average of your regular monthly incomes and use that for the missing months. The total deduced in such way yearly income is used to determine the tax rate, which is applied to your actual income. The concept is called "unterjährige Steuerpflicht".

Here's a link with details for ZH: https://www.steueramt.zh.ch/internet...pdf/24-101.pdf

No, I think you will still pay withholding tax as long as you are on a B permit.

You will fill a tax return if you earn over CHF120k in one year. You still pay withholding tax however.

Well, nobody here claimed that you would stop paying tax at source.

You'll pay it on B. If you're allowed to do tax return and get tax-assessed in the normal way, tax at source will be considered then as a prepayment towards your final taxes and you'll either get a refund or have to pay even more eventually, with interest. If you don't get to file tax return, tax at source is your final tax liability for the year.

Note even people who don't pay tax at source are sent bills to prepay their probable taxes, based on previous years' assessements . They however pay the bills themselves, instead of the amount being just deducted by employer, and get to choose when and how much to prepay

Note, in Geneva at least, You will likely stop paying tax at source after doing a full tax return while on B Permit. (personal experience). I have been here 1.5yrs, had to file a tax return and currently get my salary Gross. And i have not been sent any 'Bills' yet (as i guess the have not processed my first year return).

Also there are different rules for federal tax and cantonal tax (again Geneva specific?). I understand that one can be paid lump sum on final bill, the other is meant (mandatory?) to be paid in prepayments based on previous years assessment.

The bills will probably come sooner or later. Or you can proactively ask for them. If you pay nothing at all and wait 2 years for the final bill to come, you'll have to pay interest on itso whole amount. 1.5% p.a in ZH, possibly different elsewhere.