Cost of living - help needed to get it right

Cdndavidow · 2 August 2010 10:49

It really bugs me when people ask, "is such and such a salary enough to live off"

So I started putting together an idiots guide to working out your cost of living.

This is where I am up to, give me suggestions and I will update this original post and then hopefully we can stop having to answer questions from people who only want to eat cavier and drive around in Aston Martins.

August 2010

How to calculate if your salary will be enough for you to live comfortably in Switzerland

1. Tax

Put your salary into a tax calculator, Comparis have a good one.

http://en.comparis.ch/steuern/steuer...vergleich.aspx (NOTE: This is best used to compare taxation between cantons, not as a definitive tax calculator)

If you live in Zurich you can use their official calculator

http://www.estv2.admin.ch/e/dienstleistungen/steuerrechner/2010/zh.htm

For other Kantons look here

http://www.estv2.admin.ch/e/dienstle...uerrechner.htm

Alternatively this calculator is pretty accurate.

http://www.accurity.ch/revenueestimate/

Also for Zurich (I live here) are the tax rates of the different Gemeindes

http://www.steueramt.zh.ch/html/steu...euerfuesse.htm

As an ex-pat you will pay Quellensteuer, which means tax at source. Your tax will come straight out of your monthly salary and is made up of Kantonal tax (e.g. Zurich) and Gemeinde tax (e.g. Thalwil)

Roughly speaking the amount of tax you will pay will be between 10-15% of your earnings.

(Note: If you earn over 120,000 chf you will pay Quellensteuer and will also have to fill out a tax form, go here for help filling out the tax form,

How to do your tax return Kt ZH )

As an example lets take a salary of 100,000 and I am living in Zurich.

I am married, no religious denomination, have 2 kids and I am the sole earner.

As you can see the amount of tax you pay varies massively even across the Kanton of Zurich, but if I lived in Thalwil I would pay 11,451 chf per year.

Leaving me a total of 88,549 chf.

Tariff tables for Quellensteuer in Zurich

Single (Tariff A): http://www.steueramt.zh.ch/html/steu...if_a_QSt08.pdf

married one earner(Tariff B): http://www.steueramt.zh.ch/html/steu...if_b_QSt08.pdf

married two earners(Tariff C): http://www.steueramt.zh.ch/html/steu...if_c_QSt08.pdf

NOTE:

It has been pointed out that the different tax calculators give different results. calculating tax in Switzerland is tricky because every village can set it's own tax levels.

Go here for a "clearer" explanation

Cost of living - help needed to get it right

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2. Other taxes

AHV - Alters- und Hinterlassenenversicherung - pension 1st pillar. 5.15%.

ALV - Arbeitslosenversicherung - unemployment insurance, 1% up to 10500/month.

BFG - Berufliche Vorsorge(Gesetz), pension 2nd pillar. 2% – 11%. Swiss pensions consolidated summary

UVG - Unfallversicherung, accident insurance. 1.533%. (If not paid by your company)

KTG - Krankentaggeldversicherung, icome insurance in case of sickness. 1.07%. (If not covered by your company)

3rd Pillar - This isn't compulsory but you will probably want to invest money here

See this thread for a full discussion.

3rd Pillar Pension Fund

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3. Insurances

Health Insurance is the real biggy here and largely depends on what you want.

Again use comparis

http://en.comparis.ch/Krankenkassen/...ieeingabeseite

Accident cover is usually provided by your company. That means if you are out skiing and you break your leg your company insurance will pay. Read your contract to find out if you are covered.

The other thing to know is deductable rates

If costs for medical treatment, hospital treatment or medication occur, then the policyholder must first cover some of these costs. This first contribution is known as the deductible rate . Only if the costs exceed the agreed deductible rate, will the health insurance company contribute to further costs.

If you pick a rate of 1500 chf, you pay up until the medical cost goes above 1500 chf. (That is the basic explanation) The lower your deductible rate the more you pay per month for insurance.

As an example I pay 202chf a month for my insurance. Which from my remaining 88,549chf salary leaves me with.

202*12 = 2424

88549 – 2424 = 86125

If you are married your other half will also have to pay health insurance (and women pay slightly more than men)

So 86125 - 2424 = 83701

Children typically are insured for around 70-90Chf a month and they don't pay deductables, you just pay 80% (IIRC) of every general medical bill.

Next go here

http://www.comparis.ch/hausrat-versi...ngsnehmer.aspx

And work out the house insurance and your 3rd party liability insurance. These are not compulsory ( I don’t think) but you should probably have them.

All in all expect to lose about 27-35% of your salary to tax and Insurance.

So from our 100,000 chf salary expect to actually take home about 75,000 - 70,000 chf

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4. Rent

http://www.homegate.ch/homegate/rent...ault&a=default

Goto homegate and put in the house details and the area you would like to live in.

For Zurich as a guide:

1 room– 500chf + per month

2 room– around 1500chf per month

3.5 room – 2000 – 2500chf per month

4.5+ - 3000chf+ per month

A house – 4000chf+

See this thread for a discussion on number of rooms in comparison to number of bedrooms

How are rooms/pieces counted in home adverts?

These are rough figures for Zurich and vary on how close you want to be to public transport or if you want to live on the Gold Coast.

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5. Food and living costs

http://www.coopathome.ch

Go to the online coop shop and work out your weekly shop.

As a rough guide.

Milk – 1.40

Halbweiss /500g – 1.15chf

Chicken Breast /340g – 11.75chf

Shower Gel – 3.90

Pasta /500g – 2.80

Bananas /4-6 – 3.00

Carrots /500g – 3.00

Cornflakes /375g – 2.95

Beef Steak /150g – 12.40

As a general rule meat is expensive.

Easting out

Drinks

English Pub - 1/2 litre draft beer= 9chf

Terrasse - beer (bottle) = 8chf

Bauschatzli - beer (bottle) = 5-6chf

Average/cheap restaurant

Tiffins - beer = 6chf, main = 20-25chf

Pizza Places - beer = 6chf, main = 15-20chf, salad = 8chf

100chf for a dinner for 2 including drinks is not unusual.

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6. Public Transport

Swiss public transport is excellent, however you need to be aware it is expensive unless you buy the correct tickets.

For Zurich go here

http://www.zvv.ch/en/tickets/tickets...ces/index.html

2 Zones in Zurich for 1 adult costs for 1 year = 693chf

Halbtax – At the minimum travel card I would recommend is a halbtax

There is a discussion about it here.

http://www.englishforum.ch/daily-life/683-swiss-mystery-2-half-tax-card.html

Basically all your tickets are half price.

http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reisemarkt/...te/halbtax.htm

It costs 150chf for a year.

General Abonement (GA)

This allows you to use any public transport anywhere in Switzerland. It’s a bargain if you travel a lot.

http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reisemarkt/...abo-preise.htm

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7. Additional Costs

Go here for mobile phone charges

Cost of living - help needed to get it right

Internet/Television/telephone

Your 2 main choices are

http://www.cablecom.ch/en/ (currently 75chf for all 3) this is a cable connection

or

http://en.swisscom.ch/ this is a ADSL connection.

Television/Radio Licence.

http://www.billag.ch/web.html

You need to pay Billag, see below thread for more information.

Do I have to get a TV licence from Billag?

You pay per household and it is roughly 120CHf.

Ilapurqus · 2 August 2010 10:53

Good idea - comments:

Change bed to rooms for the rental bit

Bread at 1chf - is that for a bread roll?

Chicken (250g) = 5chf???

Cost of beer in a restaurant? bar? club?

Cost of daily tram ticket? with/out half tax?

Running a car??

Indication to the cost of a days skiing? IE Because it is what Switzerland is famous for.

Some of those food costs look wrong - very wrong!

Maybe once you have updated the main post - you could email/pm mods to delete the suggestion/replies?

Cdndavidow · 2 August 2010 11:13

I wanted to keep it to the bare essentials, so I kept skiing and dining out in restaurants out of it.

Food costs are from the Coop site, I will have a double check.

I will put in some travel stuff.

Texanaguiza · 2 August 2010 11:17

Great effort, I just doubt people will read it before posting away... so I will bookmark it to simply answer with a link.

For your list:

Asking the EF to sort out every detail of your move - priceless.

Eliforeiderim · 2 August 2010 11:17

I'll put in possible price range of cable TV / internet packages from Swisscom and Cablecom too.

Well, thats a staple for this couch potato

PS: Fantastic initiative Planthead!

Punja · 2 August 2010 11:19

Add in how the number of rooms appears in a house as this is different to england (and other places ?) so:

Studio = 1.5 pce

1 Bedroom Flat = 2.5 Pce

2 Bedroom Flat = 3.5 pce

and so on.

Eliforeiderim · 2 August 2010 11:19

Already answered in another sticky

How are rooms/pieces counted in home adverts?

recke · 2 August 2010 11:25

quellensteuer is only to be paid if you earn less than 120k/year...

Ternsh · 2 August 2010 11:30

No. Until you get a C-permit, you must pay quellensteuer. If you earn more than 120K/year, you still have quellensteuer, but must also fill in a tax return.

leophillalo · 2 August 2010 11:37

When you arrive you need to register within the first week with your Kreisburo. Here is the list of them in Zurich

http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/...ngszeiten.html

vvvn_r · 2 August 2010 11:44

Great initiative Planthead. Making a play for one of those EF Awards, huh?

Just a small point but you set up the example as a family of four, but only deduct insurance for one person from the hypothetical annual household salary. The family would also be paying a second adult insurance (and if it's for the wife it will be slightly higher than the husband), and insurance for two kids (which will run about 70-90CHf per month each child).

Also, kids don't have deductables. You just pay 80% (IIRC) of every general medical bill.

I know all this info is available in the links you provide in the post but for accuracy, it might be worthwhile mentioning in the main post too.

Cohmsa · 2 August 2010 11:52

Great thread!

Here's the official tax calculator for all cantons: tax calculator

Or if you're married to a Swiss - then you're treated as Swiss and file accordingly without quellensteuer (withholding tax).

anklin · 2 August 2010 12:31

maybe you could add directly the tax tables for those unfortunate people who will earn less than 120k, so they can see their monthly quellensteuer:

Single (Tariff A): http://www.steueramt.zh.ch/html/steu...if_a_QSt08.pdf

married one earner(Tariff B): http://www.steueramt.zh.ch/html/steu...if_b_QSt08.pdf

married two earners(Tariff C): http://www.steueramt.zh.ch/html/steu...if_c_QSt08.pdf

leophillalo · 2 August 2010 12:50

If you have a child you get about 200CHF per child extra as well do you not?

sparty · 2 August 2010 12:59

They do. I have two kids, Sanitas, deductible 500 CHF each. It is the maximum deductible for a child Sanitas offers.

leophillalo · 2 August 2010 13:09

This varies by canton. Canton Zug, for instance, receives 300fr/ month per kid.

Ilapurqus · 2 August 2010 13:33

100k is actually more like 6,300chf per month take home.

recke · 2 August 2010 13:33

sorry, thats how it works for me too, yes! what i wanted to say is that the quellensteuer differs if you compare the numbers given at zurich hp-website and the effective payment after you hand in the tax return form. but as a newbie to zurich/CH thats maybe not an important fact...