At least here in Kanton ZH, if you pay quellensteuer your tax rate is weirdly decided by your income each MONTH, and not by your yearly income. So if you are paid a 13 salary in December you will end up paying more taxes than you would have if you were paid in 12 equal monthly instalments, due to progressive taxation (for me the difference is a few hundred CHF). According to the tax office, you have no right to a tax refund of the difference.

But how does this work if you claim deductions for instance for child care? If the tax rate was based on your gross yearly income the formula is clear: You calculate gross yearly income - deducted expenses and then calculate how much tax you would have paid if this was your gross yearly income without any deductions. The difference is your refund.

But if your tax rate is based on your monthly salary? Is the expense deducted from the salary of the month it was incurred?

With Quellensteuer/tax at source , you could do a "simplified declaration" to modify that.

It implies either refund or... paying more.

They devide each of the deductions by 12 and subtract it from your monthly income to recalculate the monthly quellensteuer.

If you taxed at source and living in ZH:

a) earned less than 120k in 2016 then you can get tax refund due to pillar2/3a contributions or childcare costs by filling up this form. Deadline is March 31. AFAIK deadline can't be extended. https://www.steueramt.zh.ch/dam/fina...ng_2016_v3.pdf

b) earned more than 120k in 2016 then you will need to do full tax return. AFAIK deadline can be extended beyond March 31 on request.

Interesting. Then it will not help much in 13th salary or bonus case.

That makes sense. Do you have a source on that?

My own quellensteuer tax correction Don't think there is any written info online, you might ask the quellensteuer office about it, they are ususally good at replying to emails.

Is this simplified declaration what you do when you fill out the Kanton ZH form "Antrag für quellensteuerpflichtige Arbeitnehmende auf Neuveranlagung der Quellensteuer"* ?

Under what circumstances can you end up paying more?

* Link:
https://www.steueramt.zh.ch/dam/fina...ng_2016_v3.pdf)

If you have additional income, e.g. rent from a property abroad. Or you declare so much interest revenue that they get interested in how much money you have in the bank

Are you sure about it? Any documents?
My employer in Geneva had deducted huge income tax on monthly basis, because Geneva taxes are high, and a year later, I was able to claim few thousand CHF of Gemeindesteuer back, because I live in "Steuergünstige" Gemeinde in kanton Zurich.

They said I can get a refund for deductions I make. What I cannot do is get a refund because one months salary was higher and I therefore paid more tax than I would have if I had had twelve equal payouts adding up to the same amount. This according to the women who answered the phone when I called the Steueramt. Granted she didn't seem extremely knowledgeable, because she was not able to stay anything about how deductions are calculated given that the tax rate being determined by monthly salary.

This is correct. Either get a C permit or marry a Swiss if you want to change this.

Tom

Rubbish

Reference in English from tax office Zurich here

If you pay source tax a.ka. "Quellensteuer" (permits L and B basically, unless married to Swiss citizen or C permit holder who don't pay Quellensteuer)

- If you earn more than 120k CHF per year (pro-rata for part year) then you fill in a full tax return
Point 12 in the link above

- If you earn less then this, you can claim a "correction of withholding tax"
Point 9 in the link above

I've had a tax refund every year because of these rules mainly from Pillar 3a and Open University course fees.

Find a competent treuhand and you'll be sorted

__________________
Don't let Sean Connery teach your dog to sit

If you live in the City of Zurich be happy and do not complain.
You would pay considerably more tax if you file a full tax return.

Why? City's tax rate is 119%, average cantonal tax rate is 106 - 108%. Average is used for tax at source.

Then make sure you get all your deductions