I had this impression that the taxes are less in Switzerland as compared to other countries but I recently learned that almost 33% of my first salary was gone in sum of social contributions and Quellensteuer. I am bit surprised as this doesn't include health insurance yet! To me, it's more or less same as I was paying in Germany (~38% with health insurance). Is it normal or is there something wrong ? I am based in Bern. Following deductions are made:
AHV-Beitrag,
ALV-Beitrag,
Nichtberufsunfall,
überobligatorische Vers.,
PK Risikobeitrag,
PK Sparbeitrag,
PK Finanzierungsbeitrag,
Quellensteuer
Solidaritätsbeitrag
I checked different websites to calculate the salary but all of them gave me a number higher than what I got in my bank account. I contacted Payroll but they said that the numbers on the websites are not right. Is there anyone who has experience about it ? or do you all contribute in all those different things ?
The three starting PK are contributions to your company pension scheme. You shouldn’t see those as part of the social security/taxation system.
No idea what the solidarity payment is. I’ve never seen it in ZH or SZ.
The others excluding the Quellensteuer should add up to c. 6.5-7% of your salary and essentially represent social security. Pretty sure that’s much cheaper and buys more generous benefits than in Germany. Quellensteuer is your income tax. Bern isn’t known for being super cheap by Swiss standards.
Purely statistically speaking, a non-living-in-Switzerland parter would tend to have less income than their Swiss partner. If true, that will play favourably on your final bill
Switzerland uses worldwide income to calculate taxes. That is, you don't pay Swiss taxes on foreign income but your Swiss income is taxed at the rate determined by your worldwide income. They also consider an entire household's income as one income, so I suspect your spouse's earnings are taken into account no matter where they live. For a married couple with two earners the Quellensteuer rate is double that of a married couple with one earner, and assumes that you have comparable earnings. If your spouse makes less than you, your Quellensteuer rate is higher than what you actually need to pay, so you should apply for a recalculation of your taxes at the end of the year (you have until March the following year I think, might vary depending on canton), which requires sending a copy of your Lohnausweis and whatever documents show your spouse's income. The tax authorities will assess and then reimburse the difference. In some cantons they have an "adjusted" bracket for couples with widely different earnings to avoid paying too much throughout the year, but not all cantons offer that.
How old are you? Depending on age it affects how much you are paying into the various PK pots. The older you are, the more you pay. The difference between a 25 and a 60 year old is huge.
Also the canton you live in can have a huge difference. Even the town in the canton. For example, you might be living in the cheapest town in your canton but the quallensteuer takes the average of all of the towns in the canton
Sorry, but seeing you come from Germany, I more or less reached this conclusion just by doing my homework, way before coming to Switzerland, so unsure how your initial calculations were done and you couldn't be aware of this ahead of time.
Do you speak German? I don't, but with this limitation I still could find enough info about Quellensteuer and how it is calculated.
Wait until you see the other expenses are like, and try not to take it too hard when you check the (physical) mail