I'm in my late twenties and never in my life filed a tax declaration (complete toddler on this topic) due to always living abroad.
I am currently anticipating new salary negotiations, where going over the 120'000CHF threshold that determines Tax at Source eligibility, could be surpassed .
I live in Basel-Stadt , so maybe there are members here who would be able to comment an educated guess whether I should actively avoid having to do regular tax declarations .
Aside from the added hassle and having to spend (~300CHF?) on an accountant since I am taxation illiterate, I heard it ~could~ also cause me to effectively having to pay a lot more tax.
If there would be clear financial downsides to, instead of QS, paying regular tax, I would probably target a salary of 119'000CHF and potentially try to agree on a part-time (e.g. 90%) contract if I negotiate well over.
Status: Single with no children or confessions.
Incomes: Salary only
Residence: Basel-Stadt
Capital: Net 0CHF (Because I have a massive outstanding Student debt from my native gov' )
Forecasted QS by lohncomputer.ch:
Lohnabrechnung Salary 119'000CHF
Summe der Abzüge
2'897.37 CHF (29.22%)
AHV/IV/EO-Beitrag
525.60 CHF
ALV-Beitrag
109.09 CHF
NBU-Beitrag
142.80 CHF
KTG-Beitrag
44.63 CHF
Pensionskasse
549.03 CHF
Quellensteuer
1'526.23 CHF (21.74%)
It's my first post here, but I really tried doing my research on this forum and elsewhere too.
I am still a bit clueless, though, and would be super grateful to have some advice. <3
My experience living in Basel and going from QS to tax declaration is that you do indeed pay a bit more tax with the full declaration.
Indeed f you avoid QS by having 119K instead of 121K then you may indeed save money overall if you live in Basel (probably not if Riehen or Bettingen see further below). Your estimate for QS is probably fine, to estimate the tax with tax declaration is more complicated of course. You could pay someone to do this for you to get an accurate figure or try your self with the baltax declaration tool. Another option would be the tax calculator https://www.steuerverwaltung.bs.ch/s…errechner.html I am not 100% sure how to calculate the Nettolohn for this this, I think you remove the AHV and the pension (2n pillar) and that is your Net salary.
I don’t think the difference is huge though, maybe a few thousand. I would not negotiate for a lower salary even it if saves a couple of thousands overall. Since pay rises usually come every year and so compound over time better to always have the highest base possible otherwise whatever you save in the first year is lost the second year once you go over the 120k threshold. Also you might shift to full declaration for other reasons in the near future too, eg obtain c permit,
My understanding is that QS assumes certain deductions (not all and you can make deduction for Pillar 3 and charity donations among other things even on QS) and the tax rate is somehow averaged across the different communities, and since Bettingen and Riehen have lower tax for normal declaration than Basel, Quellensteuer payers in Basel Gemeinde benefit.
At some point, you'll go over - or get a C permit. Might as well bite the bullet now. It's really not difficult. You get someone to help you with the first one - after that it's just filling in the same return each year just copying across the figures from your annual salary and bank statements.
I seem to recall BS even has helpful notes in English.
No need to worry about paying from QS. It's better that your tax gets paid this way so you don't need to think about doing every month.
I recommend professional support for tax filing, especially your first one or if something significant changes. Indeed, after the first one, you'll have your template and use that as a basis every following year doing yourself online with BalTax. When you use Google Chrome, it's automatically translated to English, also.
If you need someone for tax filing that costs around 300-400CHF, let me know.
Hey Everyone, thank you so much for your insights, it helps a bunch.
Thank you, that strongly comfirms a suspicion of my and ~if~ the new salary will be around the 120k mark, I'll strongly keep this in mind.
It's very good that you articulated that because indeed, I share the same view on the importance of this base salary. I see it as my sole opportunity to negotiate it now, since all future renegotiations will be incremental in this foundation I currently lay, unless I would switch employer, which I'd rather not.
However, I will (if around 120k) still target to stay under if my employer is willing to reduce my contract to say 90%, so my hourly rate remains high, but with QS. I wouldn't mind working a bit less .
Yes I will try to target high, but it is a tricky thing, to negotiate with company management at this age, in a field that is so specialist that it is hard to find good reference points (I checked kununu.com & jobs.ch). I am still at the stage I expect between 100k and 140k, which is a way too broad range and I'll need to narrow it down somehow.
Yeah as with the previous one, if I do get the feeling I could significantly exceed it (that part-time cannot cover the offset) I'll bite the bullet and look for a good accountant to help me through the details.
For me it is indeed also the "ease of mind" that I do not need to understand, spend time on or worry about taxation, that makes QS appealing. But at this point I am convinced I'll invest in help when it reaches the point I'll have to do normal tax declaration. By then I'll be on the lookout for recommendations!
Note that the salary increase will not change anything in your taxes at source: you will keep paying them as you were. What will change is that you will have the obligation (until now it was a right) to file a full tax return to compute the exact tax liability and pay the missing part or get the excess reimbursed.
Basically, currently the tax office is saying "from our perspective the tax-at-source that you are paying at the final amount, but if you want we can calculate the exact value". After 120k they will be saying "these taxes-at-source are just a prepayment cos we don't trust you enough, but you must compute the exact numbers later".
Once you will be required to file a full tax return, you might also want to start looking into ways to actively decrease your tax liability (e.g. pillar 3). (actually you should be doing this during the first year that you now you will be taxed for)