My wife and I changed from B-permit to C permit in April and stopped paying Quellensteuer from May onward.
I am now (for the first time) filling out the tax declaration through the zh.ch/privatetax website. When I fill out all the information, it seems that I get our tax calculated for the whole year, without the deduction of the already paid Quellensteuer.
Would anyone know how to deduct the Jan-Apr Quellensteuer from the total tax statement?
Tom
At the below link under “Wechsel Quellenbesteuerung zu ordentlicher Veranlagung” (Change from withholding tax to ordinary assessment), it notes:
"A person liable to withholding tax who is domiciled in the Canton of Zurich will be released from the withholding tax procedure and assigned to the ordinary assessment if - as before - the following events occur:
the person liable to withholding tax obtains a C residence permit or Swiss citizenship The release from withholding tax continues to take place on the first day of the month following the occurrence of one of the aforementioned events.
Now the ordinary assessment is made for the entire tax period (i.e. no longer during the year) and the withholding tax deducted is credited against the assessed taxes without interest .”
Quellensteuerpflichtige Personen | Kanton Zürich (zh.ch)
To be clear, the Quellensteuer has been paid into your tax account at the tax office and it will be credited against the tax assessment for the year.
Hope this assists you.
So in the tax declaration I declare everything as is on my Lohnausweis, which is from 01.01.2022 until 31.12.2022 and then make the payment for a year. And they should reimburse me according to the overpaid Quellensteuer. Did I get this right?
The tax office will assess your return and send you their assessment with your account statement that shows what you have paid compared to the assessment and asks you to pay any shortfall or identifies any amount due to you.
They’ll also send you an estimate of tax for 2023 in due course with a recommendation to pay in instalments.
Before the final tax liability bill arrives (which is when the tax office accepts your declaration, not when you submit it) you can prepay taxes: how many times you want, when you want and how much you want.
When the final tax bill arrives, if the amount you prepaid already is more than you owe - you will get a reimbursement, if it is lower - you will get a bill that must be paid (+ positive and negative interests will be applied based on your prepayment dates). This year they will also consider Quellensteuer as prepayment
So you can either not prepay anything now and wait for your bill, or if you want to prepay - you probably want to prepay just the difference between what you estimated to be your tax liability and the Quellensteuer you already paid
Disclaimer: what I wrote is for ZH cantonal and gemeinde taxes
We were taxed at source Jan-Apr, and lets say we paid 5,000CHF of Quellensteuer in that period. From May until December (incl) we no longer paid the Quellensteuer due to the change from B to C permit In September 2022 we paid what we estimated to be our total total tax for that year (so we did not deduct the already paid Quellensteuer at the time), lets say it was 15,000CHF Now, doing the tax declaration I am calculating the tax for the whole 2022. Lets say the number comes out to 16,000CHF for cantonal and 2,000CHF for the federal taxes, so total of 18,000CHF Do you mean that I don't have to specify anything on my tax declaration regarding the already paid Quellensteuer except for the two Lohnausweis that say that a total of 5,000CHF of Quellensteuer have been paid for Jan-Apr as this money has already been credited to our tax account? So if I understand correctly, I just submit my tax declaration as is and when they do the final tax statement in some months (or years) they will calculate that I have paid a total of 15,000CHF (in September 2022) + 5,000CHF (in Quellensteuer) and reimburse me 20,000CHF - 18,000CHF = 2,000CHF?
That’s how it works here at least and I can’t imagine it being that much different in Zurich.
In my case I just wrote also 2 sentences on paper saying that "as you see there, I have also paid X before switching from B to C permit".
No point in overthinking it, there are thousands of tax payers going from QS B to C every year.
But - very importantly - do check the statement they send you concerning the tax you owe or are owed. Sometimes they make mistakes.
Anyone could share from their experience how high is the interest rate?
I've finally got "registered" in ZH and received my provisional tax bills. Interestingly they gave me quarterly bills and 1 total bill with due date in September as an alternative. The latter surprised me a bit. If I won't prepay anything then since when would they count any interest, since every quarter or since September However, mind you, I would consider it more convenient to pay the bill once I get the tax summary, after all my deductions etc. instead of waiting months for reimbursement. I just wonder how much would that approach cost me extra in the interests. In VD they gave me a bill for each month and reminded me on every occasion that I have to respect the bills due day.
EDIT: or rather I would prefer to pre-pay on time what I assume would cover all my taxes after all expected deductions (extra payment into 2nd pillar, etc)
For example, in Zürich, over-payments are 0.25%. Under payments 4.5%
- before 30th Sep of the tax year you earn 0.25%
- after 30th Sep of the tax year and before the final tax bill (can be years) you pay 0.25%
- after 30d ays passed on your final tax bill, you pay 4.5%
They are simply proposing you 2 ways to prepay your taxes. You are free to prepay how you want including not prepaying at all. E.g. if you have investments that generate more than 0.25% + marginal tax rate (since these 0.25% are tax free, but other investments are not) - you are better off holding onto your money until the final tax bill arrives