Moved in Sept'21, just found out I needed to declare taxes

Hello,

My husband and I moved to Switzerland August 2021. We both earn over 120k and are B permit residents living in Canton Vaud.

We understand how silly this sounds but we never realised until last week we were supposed to be declaring our taxes. We both have 3rd pillar accounts so we realise we've missed out here.

We never received any letter from Vaud about a tax number and just assumed when we started working that we were being taxed as usual via our employer so nothing additional to do.

We're trying to figure out what's the next step, a few questions we have are:

1. Do we need to ring our Vaud tax office to ask why we weren't sent tax declaration information (or is it assumed that everyone moving to CH should know to do this) and actively seek out their own tax number and tax form?

2. Is there any hope that because we weren't sent information we could still declare for 2022 (I understand the deadline was end of March)?

3. Can an accountant help in this situation or is it just about speaking to the tax office?

4. Is there a risk we would be fined for not declaring since we arrived?

Thank you!

It's up to them to send you the forms.

Tom

Don't stress about fines or anything. Just speak to the tax person in your town hall... they will give you the forms and explain what you need to do.

Are you paying 'tax at source' (Quellensteuer)??

If so, the adjustment won't be huge as a percentage - but it may be worth taking to a tax professional to see what deductions can be included.... maybe they know some things that are not immediately obvious if you do your own taxes

They will certainly get you to complete 2021, then 2022....but basically they will just want to make sure you eventually get up to date.

I would be shocked if on that sort of salary you don't have significant savings to pay the adjustment on the taxes when due, but if you don't have the cash, then eventually, whenever the additional tax bills arrive, you can ask to pay over time - just propose a reasonable repayment plan and it will be OK.

PS. Don't use any sort of online calculator to try to work out your 'additional' tax bills. It's too complex and it will throw up stupid numbers....

It could be a case of "ignorance is no excuse".

Don’t call your Commune. Here are the contact numbers. https://www.vd.ch/themes/etat-droit-finances/impots

Perhaps, but I’ve always found the Vaud tax people to be very helpful and friendly. If you go to them its a lot better than if they come to you.

You must be being taxed at source? If they never sent you the letter they can't complain. Speak to a tax accountant, you can get someone to file your tax return for about 150-

Realise I didn’t answer your questions.

It’s best to call the tax office first.

Yes you can still declare for 2022

Yes an accountant can help.

Yes, a small risk but it’s best to regularise the situation.

Thank you so much everyone for the responses, it's very helpful and put us at ease.

Yes to confirm we are currently taxed at source.

As advised, we'll reach out to the Vaud tax office to get it sorted. Thank you

Do you mean you jointly earn more than 120k or both of you individually make more than 120k? The tax office will only send you the tax forms if at least one spouse alone earns more than 120k.

Otherwise a full tax declaration is voluntarily unless one of the other conditions are met, were you must request it.

We both earn over 120k each. It's strange we never received the forms since moving here, but now that we know we'll be reaching out to them.

Contact them, otherwise they'll wake up one day, could be even in 2 years from now. No penalty was added but it's a pain to collect all the tax relevant papers from past years...