This is not related to Serse’s saga but it’s still part of the topic of this blog. And it’s gonna be a long story, so brace yourself.
A superquick primer to taxes in Switzerland. I’m covering here only the two most common scenarios for foreigners: employees at Swiss companies with B or C residence permits. In short, taxes depend on your permit. Holders of C permits, like Swiss citizens, are not directly taxed from their employer (the so-called “tax at source”), except for some federal taxes that are valid for everyone. So, every year, they must file a tax declaration, and the tax office will send them the bill for the due amount. I am not focusing on this case in this post.
Holders of B permits, instead, are taxed at source. That means that their monthly salary is considerably less than what should normally be, but they do not need to declare taxes, unless their annual gross salary exceeds 120k CHF (this amount is valid for Zerneve), in which case they are considered “high earners” and they must still file the tax declaration regardless, because they are considered a special case.
It is important to notice that tax authorities do not know the details of your financial situation unless you file a tax return. Which means that, just to be safe, they will tax at source your salary with a very high tax rate. Unless you are super-rich or you have substantial sources of income abroad, it is very unlikely that the amount you are taxed for at source is correct. Most likely you are paying too much, especially if you are doing some retirement planning like 3rd pillar deposits, 2nd pillar buybacks, or charity donations, all things that are not taxed or are taxed at a much lower rate.
Summing up, even if you are on a B permit and earning less than 120k CHF per year, and so you are not forced to file a tax return, it is still probably convenient for you to do it anyway. The tax office will eventually reimburse you the difference if you paid too much. End of the superquick primer to taxes.
What I described above was more or less my situation during the first years I was living in Switzerland. Of particular interest for me was the tax declaration for the year 2019, which I filed in early 2020. It is important because, for most of 2019, I lived and worked in a different Kanton which has much higher taxation rate than Zerneve. However, because I am a genius, I managed to move away from that shithole place before the end of 2019, and I established my residence in Zerneve in November 2019. And (this is the interesting part) for tax purposes, the computation is done according to your situation on December 31st of the year in exam! That means that, with the filing of my 2019 tax declaration, I should get back all the excess taxes at source I paid on my Jan-Nov salary.
That is, in theory.
In fact, I’ve never received that money back. Not for 2019 nor for any subsequent year. People told me tax processing in Zerneve is slow, but this is a bit too much. I have some friends who recently got back the overpaid taxes from 2020 and 2021. So, it’s time to do some phone calls.
First of all I called the Tax Office of the City of Zerneve.
“Hello, I am Mario Fantasia, blahblah. Where is my fucking money Do you know what’s the status of my tax declarations from 2019 onward?”
“Uhm, I can see that the processing of your taxes return for 2020 and 2021 is stuck because we do them sequentially, and the 2019 one has not been completed yet. But it looks like on that year you moved to Zerneve from another Kanton, is that correct?”
“Yes, correct.”
“In that case, the procedure is much more complicated, because we need to receive the money from the other Kanton before we can initiate a reimbursement in your favor. Maybe the other Kanton didn’t pay yet, or maybe there is some other issue, but I cannot see the status from here. You should call the Tax Office of the Kanton of Zerneve. Here is the number.”
Now, I must say, every time I called these people at the phone they proved to be not completely useless. They tend to really care and help you for what they can. So, I do as suggested and I call the other office.
“Hello, I am Mario Fantasia, blahblah. ‘Sup?“
“So, I can see your tax declaration from 2019. And I see that’s stuck. But that’s strange… it seems that the other Kanton did indeed pay us already. It looks like the months Jan-Nov have been processed, just December is missing. Please hold on, let me check.”
Silence for a couple of minutes.
“Hello, thanks for waiting. It looks like there was indeed some obscure issue I cannot pinpoint right now. But everything seems in order and ready to be processed. I will open a case, please call us back next week. By then we will have either started the processing, or we will know more in detail if there is anything missing. But, right now, my best guess is that it was an unfortunate human error. Apologies for that.”
AYFKM? So somebody FORGOT to process my tax declaration?
“Ehm… OK, thanks. And, how about 2020 and 2021?”
“Oh, those are stuck because we process them sequentially. After the 2019 is completed, those will go much smoother.”
I REALLY HOPE SO.
Are You Fucking Kidding Me 