Hi everyone,

Last year, after reading the forum and asking questions, and thinking and planning about when to pay taxes, here I am possibly having to pay interest on late tax payments.

In 2017, we received the provisional Gemeinde tax bills (for 2017) and paid those on time.

After having our 2016 taxes completed , I asked our tax accountant when we would have to pay the 2017 Bundesteuer and Kantonal tax. He said they would also send the bills to pay. So, I waited.....

Well we ended up having a baby in 2017, and with everything around the baby the taxes were low on the priority list. So low, that I completely forgot !

Fast forward to this year and meeting with the tax accountant - we finished the 2017 taxes and realized we need to pay Bundesteuer and Kantonal tax for 2017 AND 2018.

We never received a provisional or final tax bill for 2017 or 2018 Bundesteuer or Kantonteuer. Our tax advisor suggested we pay both bills for 2017 immediately. We may or may not have to pay the interest as the bills were never sent to us.

In my panic, I asked the tax accountant what the interest would be and he said 5% . However, I forgot to ask if that is 5% per month it was late or on the whole amount due.

Has anyone had to pay the interest on a late tax payment ?


TheLaughingCow

5% a year calculated on a daily basis from the due date.

Thank you ! and thank goodness .

It is per year (which normally means 360 days).

It depends on the canton.
In Canton Zurich it is 0.5% per year from the ordinary due date (September 30 of the tax year) until final amount as been calculated and billed.
30 days after the final bill it will be 4.5% per year.
https://www.zh.ch/internet/finanzdir...rter_zins.html

In Aargau it is 5.1% per year for cantonal and communal tax from the ordinary due date (October 31 of the tax years) and also for late payment of the final bill. For federal tax it is 3%.
https://www.ag.ch/media/kanton_aarga...rjahr_2018.pdf

In Zug it is 0%. (3% for federal tax)https://www.zg.ch/behoerden/finanzdi...ltung/zinssatz

In Luzern it is 0% per year for cantonal and communal from the ordinary due date (December 31 of the tax year) till final bill and 6% (5% up to 2017) if the final bill is not payed. For federal tax it is 3% as well.
https://steuerbuch.lu.ch/index/band_...ang_zinssaetze

So it can vary. If you paid too much tax you might also get interest. Luzern and Zug have 0%, Ticino 0.25%, Zurich 0.5%, Solothurn and Bern 3%.

__________________
"Okay, I just hope we don't wake up on Mars or something surrounded by millions of little squashy guys."

Thanks for the detailed response @aSwissintheUS .

I'll try to update this post regarding whether we have to pay the late interest. I doubt we'll get any return !

TheLaughingCow

Hi everyone ,

Just an update on paying the interest on late tax payment ....

Our 2017 tax return was finally accepted and completed by the Kantonal tax authority office, and we did NOT have to pay any interest

So, our tax advisor was right. Because they had not sent us any provisional or final bills, and because they had not finalized/accepted the return , and because we paid the amount our tax advisor estimated we didn't have to pay the interest.


Now on to the 2018 tax season

I just got the interest payment bill from some 2014 taxes I only recent paid, CHF 75 or so.

Tom

Ping for this thread.

I live in Stadt Zürich and have just received my Staats- under Gemeindesteuern Schlussrechnung for 2016, dated 15.04.2019.

I note that they have included interest charges, which are backdated to 30.09.2016 i.e. the middle of the actual tax year and some 6 months before my tax return was due.

Is this correct?

Yes as you should be paying tax on account in Zurich during the year in question.

Thanks. Ignorance of the law and all that. At least it's only 0.5%..

That's not the middle, it's 3/4 of the way into the tax year!

Tom