Moving to Zug or Schwyz while on garden leave

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
21

nop, BS. If you’re renting I bet the current landlord you’re leaving is notifying the municipality about your departure which will trigger tax and SEM attention if no new records appear in a few weeks. However the law is clear, you pay taxes where you live at the end of the year (there are dispute issues with family situations where only a member of a family wants to claim residency away from the rest of the family, but that’s a different topic)

To give you a better picture about the “edge” cases you imply:

  • I moved to ZH on December 1st, was taxed in ZH for the whole year
  • I moved to ZG on December 15th, was taxed in ZG for the whole yaer

so if there’s no other strings to attach, like you paying still rent for the old place on 31.12… or “center of life” due to family location, the law must be followed, literally

PS> I guess if someone moves residence in December then suddenly in January leaves the canton, I guess there’s some other article to curb it (which is not listed in the general topic, i.e. some tax avoidance law etc)

22

Be very careful, unless your employer sanctions your absence. It would not be the first time an employer needing to save money suddenly called a employee into the office and used the inability to turn as an excuse for immediate termination of contract without compensation…

23

The tricky part is that tax residence isn’t simply determined by where you register or rent a cheaper flat. If you’re spending most of the year abroad and have given up your Zurich home, the authorities could look closely at where your actual centre of life remains. I’d be very cautious about moving cantons purely for the lower rate without getting professional advice first, especially with the garden-leave arrangement and B-permit.

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