I've received this morning a bulletin from the Gemeinde, where they say I should pay 1600 CHF. It looks like I didn't pay something in the past. But I can't understand what is it.
The "title" of the letter is 1. Mahnung.
In the "Bezeichnung" field there is:
Rechnung Einmalrechnungen: 1600.00
Mahnspesen (2. Mahnung): 0.00
In the orange bulletin there is written:
Einwohnergemeinde Riehen
Strange, it is addressed personally to me, not to my husband or to our family. (I took a German class by the Gemeinde, could be related to that, but I'm sure I paid for it, and it wasn't so expensive).
i got something similar. i guessed it was some kind of poll tax. but mine was only 40chf so i just paid it. i got the 2nd one a months ago a year after the first.
The 'einwohnergemeinde' is the community of residence; that is something different from the 'burgergemeinde', which is your community of citizenship. Some Swiss cantons still have this system, which differentiates between where your family originally came from (your 'community of citizenship') and where you now live (your 'community of residence') - one part of which is that if you become old and infirm, your 'community of citizenship' must take you in and take care of you. It's a form of social security, in other words, for a time when there was no national social security system.
Not much help for your problem, though: what *else* does the letter say?
You are being taxed/dunned for something, after all!
Saxer Treuhand is not far from Reihen (offices just opposite Manor in KB). The owner (Hans-Jorg Saxer) speaks good enough English to provide you the information that would help and will not cost much - certainly less than the 1600 CHF you are being charged.
Sent you a PM with the telephone number of a lady at Riehen Gemeinde who you can call. She speaks English and was really helpful when I needed help recently.
Thank you all. I'll call somebody and try to understand what happened.
In the letter there's written only what I've written here, and five lines in German, which I translated and say only that they found out that I have to pay this tax.
I took a German class, and my husband's firm should have paid for it. Maybe they didn't recognize the payment as mine...