My situation: in 2022 I was a withholding tax payer on permit B, < 120k in income and < 200k in savings. I have been asked to submit the tax return retroactively for that year anyway in 2023 (due to new law introduced in 2021, when in some cases Steueramt can ask You to do it), I then submitted the return (first time ever) and now received the bill.
Now: my Lohnausweis that I submitted with my tax return for 2022 states that 10k of withholding tax has been paid by my company, but on the bill itself it only says that the payment Steueramt has received is 7k. This 10k number is as per date (Valuta) of 30.09, so this would explain that not all of the payments that my company has made that year were taken into consideration (i.e. payment done in October, November and December - each 1k - were not included), but then again how come Steueramt is sending a bill in 2024, when for sure the entire 10k should be booked on Steueramtâs account?
Is there something obvious Iâm missing as a greenhorn? If I pay the bill now, is Steueramt going to eventually pay out the difference or is it reasonable to file an objection right away?
I do not know in what canton you live and whether that may be different to ZĂźrich, which is the one I know, but the 30.09. is used by Kt ZĂźrich.
I presume that you received the final bill for the cantonal and communal tax (Staats- und Gemeindesteuer), including the calculation of the interests (Zinsabrechnung). Your Quellensteuer (for the whole year) is taken as paid on 30.09 for the calculation of interests, that is what that date means. It does not mean that they are forgetting the payments of October, November and December. The difference between the amount of Quellensteuer in your Lohnausweis and the Zinsabrechnung has likely been used to pay the federal tax, for which you surely received a letter three-four months ago. Or at least this is how it has been for me in the past years.
However, if the numbers still do not match it is worth asking.
Thank You, youcannotbeserious. Itâs Zurich indeed and I did receive a bill for federal tax bill couple months ago, and the amount would match the amount that is missing.
But if federal tax is also included in witholding tax, and the witholding tax I paid in 2022 was 10k, 3kâs been claimed by federal government, which leaves the 7k, but the Gemeinde and Staadt bill mentions the 10k tax on the bill, hence asking for the 3k that the balance is now short of, then why hasnât the witholding tax amount deducted from my annual income been 13k instead of 10k. Thisâs what confuses me now.
The withholding tax rate is different from the actual tax rate, which depends on your place of residence. It could happen to be the same, but there is no rule as the withholding tax is the average tax rate in the canton. It is possible that due to your residence on 31.12.2022 the cantonal and communal tax is 10k.
Without knowing where did you live, I canât say anything precise, you know, thereâs a tax in Kilchberg, and a tax in WinterthurâŚ
Since I came to Switzerland I move within Zurich city only, but Iâm at the same zip code since 2020. The difference between what my employer knows and what tax bureau knows would be my savings and how much Iâm deducting (e.g. health insurance fees), but all the other parameters (which church I belong to, how many children I have and so on) that decide the tariff is what I declare as same to both entities. I understand then that my assets/savings could bump the tax up a little, but the deductibles could lower it, but all in all I was not expecting this big a discrepancy.
From what Iâm googling now, with the bills I received I would be paying a somewhat average effective tax of approx. 17%, but then it means that the witholding tax Iâve been paying all years prior was 2-3k lower than it would have been, had tax bureau been asking me for a tax return. How come theyâre not asking everybody to file it, given this big a loss in tax, Iâm then thinking.
If youâre single you have to fill the full tax return once your wealth cross 100k in canton ZH
Thank You, as I was convinced itâs 200k, but it doesnât explain the discrepancies between how employer calculates the witholding tax and what the tax bureau charges. I cannot find the rules for how employer is supposed to do it. Iâve now read elsewhere that it is typical to pay 3-4k more tax upon filing a tax return as compared to be taxed at source only.
Withholding tax is a kind of average - depending on your own situation and deductions some.people will pay more and some less when declaring. In your case itâs more unfortunately but itâs not that your company made a mistake, itâs the way the system works.
The âlost moneyâ in some cases is the price the kanton is willing to pay for simplicity of handling tax.
OP, I can see youâre upset about the situation obviously so your mind skipped the explanation I gave you few posts above.
As @Buzzer wrote the idea behind âcanton averageâ tax rate for withholding was perhaps simplicity, lowering the burden on the employers doing the accounting for all employees with B permit.
Your employer is obliged to deduct the amount according to the tables
Whilst in full tax declaration, you pay municipality tax rate depending on your actual post code.
Letâs assume, single, no children, 100K (8.333 monthly):
- withholding tax 9â430
- Zurich city 12â700
- Kilchberg ZH 10â376
Welcome to the tax game. If you lived in Kilchberg or anywhere on the âGold Coastâ, you wouldnât need to top up anything.
The calculation of withholding tax by the employer can only be a simplified calculation based on limited information. This would almost never correspond to the exact tax you would pay on completing a tax return.
For example, it doesnât take into account wealth taxes, income from savings and investments, etc. I always do a calculation and err on the conservatives side as I have a large (5%) interest penalty for underpaid tax, so better to pay too much and claim it back later!
Yes unfortunately for single people on B permit submitting own tax declaration will most surely result in higher tax by couple of thousands. Tax declaration has advantage over quellensteuer only in cases you have massive expenses you can substract (education in ~10th thousands, medical bills in ~10th thousands), in all other cases you pay only more (like C permit holders). In case your Lohnausweis says that X amount was paid as Quellensteuer, but Steueramt says Y only was paid (federal + cantonal), then you need to call amt directly and provide each month Lohn statements to prove how much was substracted by employer. It can happen employer paid different amount to Steueramt to what âthey supposed to payâ, so just have salary statements ready to prove your point.
The annual salary certificate (Lohnausweis) should suffice, point 12.
From the link sichuan linked you can check if the Quellensteuer was applied correctly. As others say, Quellensteuer is a kind of average, for some people it is favourable and for some it is unfavourable. If you are single, no kids and living in ZĂźrich city (steuerfuss 1.19), you are like to end up having to pay more.
Nevertheless, to me 3k in federal tax and 10k in cantonal + communal tax for Zßrich sounds like a weird ratio. Even if deductions are not the same at both levels and taxable income is therefore not necessarily the same, they are usually similar and from the tables⌠I would come to different numbers. But again, I am guessing.
I also find a bit strange that if someone helped you prepare the tax return they did not warn you that you would probably have to pay some extra. If you you prepared yourself, maybe for next time check that you are not omitting some tax deductions that you may apply. And even if you do it yourself, you get an estimate of the due tax, so you can compare with the Quellensteuer deducted and also check if the âVeranlagungâ provided by the Steueramt is in line with what you provided or not.
Iâd like to thank everyone in this thread. The numbers make sense now and I can see I understood nothing about withholding tax, and now I understand some. Iâve paid the bill today and this bitter duty has been very positively offset by the tremendous community response.
1 Like