Just wondering if there are any good threads here with advice regarding leaving Switzerland. I’ve tried searching but was unable to find a complete or up to date thread.
I’ve come up with the following:
Deregister at Gemeinde
Sort out final taxes
Cancel Health Insurance
Cancel all other contracts
Inform the kids school(s) and obtain some sort of transfer papers
Sort out pension funds (I saw a good thread regarding this topic)
And the following I’m not sure about:
Bank account? I’m guessing will have to close with no Swiss address.
Depending on your nationality you may not be able to cancel your health insurance, but would have to continue to pay it to benefit in another country. You might be eligible for an exemption to this.
Again, depending on your nationality, where you’re moving to and which bank you’re with you might be able to keep the account open for a while if you want to.
I can only suggest that before you leave CH, you complete the tax obligations, while you still have an address and bank account in CH.
Swiss tax authorities will not work with non-CH mailing address. this issue was discussed in another thread. However, if you inform the tax authorities that you are leaving, they will make it a priority to review all your tax documents and give you a bill to pay it off immediately (including the federal taxes in many kantons/gemeinde).
I know many banks will allow you to keep your accounts (unless you are moving to the US). However, they will charge a monthly fee to maintain the account. It may be best to change your preference to electronic communication on all communication and not tell them until you are ready to ‘close’ the account a few months after you have moved and dealt with all your financial concerns.
Some banks will communicate with you via email, but they will require a signed ‘agreement’, before they will engage in email communication.
If you are Swiss, remember you are required to register with the Swiss embassy abroad (akin to register with the Gemeinde-Commune in Switzerland), within 3 months of leaving.
Banks have no problem with overseas address (exceptUSA) and generally give you a few months before the high monthly fees kick in. If you leave around 100k or thereabouts, they allow you to keep the account without fees, though they will attach you to their “foreigners” office (amount is significant less than what is required for new foreign customers).
The obvious, but I’m not sure if I would have figured it out if not hearing about it, you can announce leaving, de-register a few month in advance, which give you plenty of time before the actual leave to close everything else as you might need the confirmation of de-registering.
And depending where you’re moving to, registering for minimal AHV payments is a good idea too, even if it seems laughable now.
You may not want to have “holes” in the payments. The better you sort that now, the crazier you can go until you’re 65. Okay, might be 75 or 95 by the time you get there.
My Swiss husband lived in the UK for 3 years without registering with the Embassy - we never knew he should of and it never became an issue, I guess if he’d have wanted to vote he’d have needed to.
It depends on how cleanly you want to leave, and if you plan to return - some Cantons are more picky to know where you were and what you did (tax-wise) these years… Otherwise it can become be too easy as a Swiss to say “I’ve moved abroad” and avoid taxation.