Hello Folks,

I have a query regarding the tax calculation and refund when we have moved cantons during the year.

In 2019, my wife and I were living in Basel Stadt (BS) upto August and moved to Basel Land (BL) in September. We both have B permits issued in early August 2019; wife was working on L permit before that and I started working in the second half of Aug.

As per our understanding and advice from a tax consultant, we filed our taxes and applied for source tax correction for the full year in BL, where we were residing on 31 December 2019. The understanding was that doing so would take care of the correction and applicable refund for the full year. However, as per the tax correction letters we received from BL, the source tax correction has been applied only from September. There is no mention of the correction for the period from Jan to Aug.

In the calculations, the deductions (Hospital costs, Pillar 3a and Travel costs) have been apportioned for 4 months (Sep to Dec) only (e.g. Total Amount paid for Pillar 3a - CHF 6826; Amount considered for tax deduction - 6826/3 = 2275.35). So, we have not received the tax deduction benefit for 8 months!

From all the experienced folks out here, any pointers on how can we get the benefit of the tax deduction for the complete year?

Should we request BL to consider the deduction for the full year and process the tax refund? Or do we now need to send the source tax correction to BS separately?

As I see it, Baselland is responsible only for processing and refunding source-tax for the period in which the taxpayer lived in Baselland. This would mean that a separate application for a new assessment of the source-tax for Basel-Stadt should be made separately. Unfortunately, the "Antragsformular für Tarifkorrektur und Rückerstattung der Verrechnungs-steuer CH" for 2019 for Basel-Stadt was due by 30 September 2020:


https://www.steuerverwaltung.bs.ch/s...formulare.html


Suggestion: although the submission deadline for 2019 has been missed, consider completing the Antragsformular for Basel-Stadt anyway, attaching the required supporting document but also including a copy of the Baselland submission. With some luck the Basel-Stadt tax office might accept it. If they don't, you're just out a small amount of your time and the price of a stamp.

Question regarding this suggestion - In case BS does not accept it, is there any other alternative?

I just checked that the letter sent by BL was on 24 Sep, post which we hardly had enough time to submit to BS before the deadline of 30 Sep.

In most cantons the deadline is March 31. Surprised that it is End of September in BS. Preparing a simplified correction request should not take that long considering you already had it done for BL.

September deadline is the extension deadline.
"Regular" return is due March as well.

Quick update on this one.

We sent the tax source correction request to BS as suggested in this thread. They were very prompt and sent us a letter and returned all the documents that we submitted saying that we have missed the date (30 Sep) and they will not be able to process the request.

Somehow, I still decided to send a polite e-mail to the BL tax authorities requesting to consider the full year as our understanding was to file only in BL. They replied saying that BL would only be responsible for Sep-Dec as we were residing in BL for that period only. They did mention that they have forwarded the request to BS.

I thought that was the end of it and BS would not bother replying or just repeat what they already mentioned in the earlier letter.

However, much to our pleasant surprise, we received a tax assessment from BS today considering the full year investment for Pillar 3a along with the refund amount.

Being the first time interacting with Swiss authorities, pleasantly surprised at the speed, efficiency and hassle-free service. Kudos!

Do I understand i correctly that you only did a simplified correction and not a full tax filling?

In that case I share BL point of view. As the simplified correction is only for tax at source and tax at source is owned at the place where you live at time you get paid. (Art. 107 DBG https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classifi...ndex.html#a107 and Art. 38 Abs. 4 StHG https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classifi...index.html#a38)


As Mullhollander says. Deadline for BS tax at source correction passed. But nevertheless try it. You can only win and lose the value of a post stamp at worst.

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

Yes; that is correct. We did not get a letter from the canton to file the tax return. Since we invested in Pillar 3a and had other deductions for travel and medical costs, we wanted to file the tax return as we would be eligible for a refund of the taxes paid. So, we filed the source tax correction on the recommendation of the tax consultant that we spoke to.

We did receive a refund from BL (only a third of what we were expecting as they considered only a third of the year for the calculation).

I am actually not happy with the tax consultant. He should have advised us to file the source tax correction in BS as well.

Thank you Mullhollander and aSwissInTheUS; this is helpful. We will now file a source tax correction in BS and see how that goes.