It is most definitely taxable as part of your 'fortune' - at a low rate, but taxable all the same. We are lucky that our UK property has no mortgage on it- so the totality of its value is put towards our 'fortune' tax.
It should not be, you should get an "ausscheid/repartition" where you clearly see "fortune determinant pour le taux" including the overseas property and "fortune imposable" exlcuding that column. Any mortgages are prorated across your assets.
I think you are in Neuch... sadly Wahid and his team at the impots there are prone to some curious ideas, but this is plain wrong: I do not think this is a cantonal level choice, but federal tax rules.
Old thread but I'm hearing somewhat vague arguments about foreign property taxation. So, basically we're declaring and they are not taxed and it only changes the tax rate? I'm totally lost about this subject.
If you fill in the tax form correctly, this will happen automatically. You don't really need to worry about the precise calculation.
Yes your tax rate is based on your total global net assets (ie also including foreign properties and mortgages), but are only taxed on the assets attributed to Switzerland (ie excluding foreign properties but only excluding a portion of the the mortgages on them). As Amogles says, this is done by the authorities for you.
Thank you for the kind replies.
Another problem...We have a translated tax form as well (English) but there are some parts (in property asset calculation part) where some concepts don't even make sense to us. I'm just hoping we don't make any mistakes.
Is the form official? In which Canton? Maybe you want to post a link to it.
Unofficial translation of the tax form (Basel) and there's no link to it.
Try using the official SW program together with google translate. That will be best. I believe you have to use the DA1 form.
The part we really didn't understand is as follows:
"For land and property not located within Canton, the prior value for tax purposes plus the external value for tax purposes (eg official value, land register value) must be entered."
"Bei nicht im Kanton gelegenen Grundstücken und Liegenschaften sind der bisherige Steuerwert und zusätzlich der auswärtige Steuerwert (z.B. Amtlicher Wert, Katasterwert) einzusetzen."
I had a similar problem. I phoned the guy in the tax office and he said, if you cannot prove the value, just write a free form letter explaining what you believe the fair value of the property to be and if possible explain how you arrived at that number. The German term for this type of self declaration is nach besten Wissen und Gewissen. Your letter must contain those words. I've done that for three years running now and it was always accepted.
Thank you for the kind reply, very helpful info. I guess we still need to contact them and make sure we don't make any mistakes. Never heard something like "prior value" and "external value" before.
In my experience (two foreign properties declared over 15+ years) because it has such a minor impact on your tax bill, they dont get too hung up on the valuation you put (and in the case of holiday homes the notional rent).
Frankly I would just put in your conservative estimate of market value less c.35%. Its a tax valuation and not a market but tax value that is required (compare Swiss properties whose tax value is way lower than market value). This will be reasonable approximation of what would come out of a more formal approved valuation method.
Thank you, great and helpful info! There are just so many new concepts for us to understand Thank you all for kind and helpful replies.