Can someone explain what does this actually mean? I just got a questionnaire from the Zurich city and there is like no explanation attached.

I'm probably over 200'000, but I actually have no idea, since I'm not that concerned with the current market value of my assets.

Or are they asking about my assets in Switzerland only?

What is the title of the questionnaire? What else do they ask? Who is the sender, Gemeinde Zürich?

oh boy!

The title is: "Berufliche Tatigkeit / Lebensunterhalt"

They asked about who my employer is (which is really weird, since I had to hand in my contract for the work permit), how much I make monthly, if I'm a student, receiving any benefits...

EDIT: the sender is "Stadt Zurich, Steueramt, Abteilung Quellensteuer"

Better answer according to your tax filings then :-)


Edit: assuming they want to determine whether you should file taxes, if you do not do that already maybe?

Well I have none, since I just arrived a month ago :-)

But OK, Swiss assets it is then.

Uhm no, world wide assets

Why? Can you explain why they are asking this?

In Switzerland you need to declare your world wide income, hence also your world wide assets. You can check that on the website from the Steueramt Zürich

because you are taxed over worldwide income

Hmm, OK. I guess I need a Tax advisor then, because I have no freaking idea how to deal with this :-/

And I will actually need two of them, since I need to do my taxes in Czech Republic as well.

Answer the questionnaire, simple as that. In principle, any bank account, any depot, any asset needs to be declared. Just give them the numbers in local currency?

They are asking for world wide assets. May be its something to do with wealth tax. I got the similar questionnaire when I arrived here.

That's fine and dandy for liquid assets. But 90% of my assets are non-liquid.

So give them your estimate of the current market value of those non-liquid assets. Your estimate is unlikely to be questioned.

You are taxed over world-wide income, but wealth tax excludes foreign real esate, although you need to declare this as well as it affects the calculation.

PS: Wealth tax is pretty low. A an asset of CHF 300k would lead to less than CHF 300 tax.

See page 2. You have to approximately double the numbers shown as Canton and Commune each get a share.
https://www.steueramt.zh.ch/internet...ndessteuer.pdf

what if you own 4 cars, 7 motorcycles and a scooter?

Depends on the value.

Since most are over 10 years old, the value on those is 0.

Tom

The Swiss tax return isn't just an annual personal profit and loss statement on your income minus deductions for income tax assessment.

It's also an annual balance sheet declaration on your net worth of assets minus liabilities/debts for wealth/asset tax assessment above approx 70k.

Thankfully the asset tax rate is lower than the income tax rate.

On the other hand there's no capital gains tax like in most other countries (Belgium used to be similar I believe).