I know this is possibly difficult to estimate but what would the normal charge be from a a tax consultant for Tax preparation and submission - i have been quoted 2300 which seems quite steep!
thanks
Hi,
I paid approx 400chf for the Swiss tax prep last year.
We paid around chf 300.
Locals say that you should pay max CHF 100. That's with only a CH salary, CH bank accounts and Pillar 3's.
Add foreign income, bank accounts and a few properties and is gets "complicated" and they charge a lot more. I was quoted CHF 1000.
Unless you are self employed or have a very complex financial situation I'd advise you not to use a consultant at all. The tax form isn't as complex as it looks once you get into it. In fact I spent more time looking for the various documents, receipts etc than actually filling in the form (and even if you take a consultant you're still going to have to look for that stuff yourself). If anything isn't clear a quick email to the tax office will get you a clarification. At least from my own experience I've found the tax office to be extremely helpful and also honest, ie, they pointed out things I could do to reduce my tax bill although I would blissfully have payed more had they not told me. They were also extremely patient with me, explaining the smae stuff twice over again when I didn't get it first time.
We pay about 200 CHF. Ours is a little complicated as we have house back in the UK which we rent out. We use Colfina.ch
I pay 50. 2400 does seem very steep though.
50 CHF? Are you serious. Bro you need to hook me up with this guy.
150 chuffs
The big accountancy firms (often recommended by companies here to their expat employees) will charge a thousand francs or more for a simple tax declaration. But I would agree with the general consensus that you can get it done for 200 CHF or less if you ask around. Probably more if you are American or from another country that has double taxation and you want the consultant to do the returns for both countries.
If your situation is simple (just declaring your salary, doing the standard deductions for travel expenses, meals taken out of the home and not much else), you could do the declaration yourself - I have been doing this for the last few years and it's pretty straightforward, assuming you are comfortable with German/French of course.
I was just quoted 150 per hour. I don't know how many hours they would spend, but I did mine on Saturday (the quote was for 2011 as I'll be leaving the country) in about 2 hours (most of which as other have said was spent finding the figures, not filling in the form).
We've been quoted 90.- for a one hour consultation at our place. Ours is pretty basic, 2 incomes, mortgage, 3a etc. No foreign property, no investments. It's more a case of "have we been doing this correctly for the last x years?"
The bit that always confuses me is the "impôt anticipé" and "impôt non-anticipé" for our various accounts.
Hi Amolges
What's the e-mail id of the Tax office for Zurich which we can use to
correspond to them .
Regards
If you look on the Migros and Coop small adverts notice boards, you will usually find someone willing to help you for between Fr. 70 and Fr. 100 . Unless you own property or have assets abroad, it really is a simple exercise.
The email form is here
The problem with getting a third party expert to complete your tax form is that their submission will only be as good as the details (the paperwork) that you supply.
In fact you are the one that does all the work as collecting this paperwork is the hardest part! The expert then simply drops the figures you've taken the time to compile and supply into his/her computer and bingo - you pay for what you could have done.
Cantons provide free software which amount to electronic versions of the tax form that add up columns and deduct allowance automatically.
I deduct CHF500 from my income each year for completing the tax form (under section 16.3 on the Zurich form). Hopefully at least your tax experts are expert enough to set their own fees as a deduction.
If you have once paid to have your taxes done by an expert, from then on you can download the free software and use last year's form as a template and simply fill the figures in.
Tip: Start a folder now for the 2011 year. Put everything in here that is relevant to your tax form through the year as they come in, then you won't be scrambling around looking for them when you need them.
Tip: if/when you pay charities, do them all on the same day without making any other payments that day. Then use the 'payment advice' sheet with the various charity payments on as your evidence of payment without need to list each one individually.
AbFab: what else do you deduct normally (nothing personal of course, just stuff others can use) cheers!
I know, I asked before.I'm just puzzled. In the UK you can't deduct food etc. You can really do this in Switzerland? You get basically free lunch because you eat it at work? Seriously?
Kt Zurich 2010 tax year: if you have a subsidised canteen you can deduct CHF7.50 per working day or a maximum of CHF1600 pa.
With no subsidy CHF15 per day or CHF3,200 pa.
This is completed under "Berufsauslagen"...