For guys out there applying who were born in the years 1981-1987, please be aware of the recent retrospective law change regarding military service: https://www.sz.ch/public/upload/asse...HeI_UWtSt2Q2ls


Long story short, depending on when you get your citizenship, you may be required to pay non-service compensation, which is around 2-3% of your yearly income.

Yep, for men naturalizing after the age of 24, military service is no longer possible.

For men naturalized between the ages of 25 and 30, you are announced to the civil protection service of your canton and will be asked to do base training for civil protection (10-19 days of service and approx 5 days annual service thereafter).

BZG Art. 49

Men naturalized after the age of 30 are not called to serve and will be required to pay the exemption tax until their 37th birthday amounting to 3% of annual taxable income (basis used is amount declared for direct federal tax) or minimum of 400 CHF.

More details in the WPEG

In what sense is that new?

Tom

The new part is that before 2019 the max age was 30 so people naturalizing after 30 were not subject to the tax.

In 2019 the threshold was extended from 30 to 37 and in some cases applied retroactively as described above

Well, it was 43 (used to be 60) when I did it, so 37 sounds pretty good to me!

Tom

Does anyone know if you can voluntarily do the civil service if you recently naturalised and are above 30 but less than 37?

Civil service (replacement service for the army) is no longer possible as older than 24.

However, volunteering to the civil protection is possible with no age limit and even with a C permit:

Art. 33 para 1d of BZG

Admission for a volunteer is up to the canton's discretion.

Thanks! Just find it a bit strange if you have to pay the tax for not doing military/civil service if you don't have the option of doing the service in the first place.. Still happy to become Swiss in any case

I believe the issue was that many "secondos" (2nd generation immigrants) whose parents never naturalised were delaying citizenship until they were 30 to escape military service. Few would leave it as late a 38.


But yeah, just consider yourself Switzerlanded!

Yes this is correct. The presumed advantage naturalized Swiss used to have was removed making it less unfair on native Swiss.

The concrete example I know of is someone who was born in 1981. They received their citizenship when they were 32, but now at the age of 38/39 they received a retrospective bill (Basel Land) for the last year of service..many thousands of francs apparently.

As it has been said it is 3% of the taxable income (if no military Service has been done). https://www.ch.ch/de/wehrpflichtersatzabgabe/

I'm happy to report that my case is progressing as I have received the CHF 100 SEM bill. Never been so excited about a bill before! This is the first letter that I have received since the confirmation that my civil status was registered about 3 months ago.

Congrats! The next letter you get should announce that you are Swiss :-)

Thank you litespeed! That would be really amazing if that's the next letter. I haven't received any news yet though regarding Cantonal approval. Maybe that comes at the end of the process.

Congratulations, one more step to greatness!

(makes a mental note)

When I got the letter from canton saying they have the ball now (2 months back or so) they phrased it a little bit like that also: "After we're done with your file, we'll push it to SEM and they'll send you a bill". So there was, indeed, a silent implication that they may not contact me about the outcome.

You generally don't get an SEM bill unless you've got Cantonal approval..this could have been a combined step with the town approval.

Thank you Juraj_007! I haven't received that letter or any other from the Canton. The last letter I received in October said we will now send off your file for Cantonal approval and then after that Federal approval. That letter ends with as a final step you will be invited to the ceremony.

I was under the impression as well that the Cantonal approval came before the SEM bill but I'm not complaining and happy to have received it. By the way, this super important SEM bill was sent by B-post.

Super important to you yes, but to them it's just routine unfortunately.

B-Post means their cheap, and they think that since you've waited 2 years, you can wait a day longer than A-post

If they thought it was important (to them), they would have sent it registered

It's not about the extra day.The letter says this bill must be paid within 30 days and if it's not paid on time or in in full then SEM will not look at your file. That means sudden death in the process, can you imagine!