I am a resident of the canton of Zurich, I have residence permit C and I plan to apply for the naturalization in about 2 years.
Last year and this current year I have ignored the payment of provisional tax bills until the final tax bill arrives, as the interest to pay them at last moment is very low. I would prefer to pay all in once the exact amount than multiple times an provisional amount.
But today something came to my mind that I had not thought of before: as I am going to apply for naturalization in about 2 years’ time, can the delay in provisional tax bill payment be a reason to deny my naturalization application?
One of the prerequisites for naturalization:
“They must respect important financial commitments. You may not have any unpaid entries in the debt collection register in the last 5 years”.
https://www.zh.ch/de/migration-integ…ml#-1828055757
Thanks
Has the tax office needed to set debt collection on you?
If yes, fix that immediately by paying all taxes, and then ask very nicely whether they would agree to have that debt removed from the debt register.
If no, then you probably don't have anything to worry about. Just don't delay such that they need to send you a warning.
In Valais you have to pay the provisional bills, it’s not optional. If it’s optional, no problem.
In Zurich, you can pay your tax, partially or fully, independently of receiving any bill.
When I applied for naturalization part of the documents I had to sbmit was somehting from the tax oofice saying I was up to date with my payments.
This was a long time ago and not in Zurich so am going on a whim to say that I am almost certain they would require something similar.
However, I would also say that if you have not yet received the final tax bill and hence have not paid, it should be fine.
I would also like to add that if you ever leave the ocuntry you have to settle all outstanding tax at once, so be sure to have money aside. You can also calculate your own tax if you think the provisional is wrong and pay that amount. The online calculatiors are pretty accurate in a generic situation and if oyu pay before Sept you even get some interest back.
No, I am not aware that they would have sent a debt collection on me, but i did not pay the provisional tax.
Even last year I went to tax office in my gemeinde asking for the interest applied if I decided to postpone the tax payment til final tax bill. I don't remember but it was something like 0.25%, I guess this year is way larger like 1%. So now it is not so low anymore. So at that time I thought I was doing right.
Anyway tomorrow I will call my gemeinde tax office and canton migration one.
PS: Quellensteuer was way more convenient. I would prefer quellensteuer, or just one final tax bill payment. But like that you have the worst of both options.
Set up automatic monthly payments to the tax office and it will be similar to Quellensteuer.
Only unpaid final tax bills are relevant for naturalization
We don't get provisional tax bills in BS, but we find it convenient to pay in advance.
There is the matter of a little interest in our favor. Why would we choose to pay the tax office interest, rather than them paying us interest instead, no matter the amount? Also, if we prepay by the end of the year, we don't have the money we owe in our accounts, therefore we don't pay wealth tax on it - less tax owed. Considering the interest that money would reap in my bank account (~0), and the fact that we don't need it to survive, I really don't see the benefit of not paying in advance.
We are in the process of naturalization. The document we were asked to provide was a confirmation that we have paid all of our final tax bills for the past five years.
On of my friends is convinced that when he paid the provisional tax bill, it expedited his citizenship.
I, on the other hand, am owed money by the tax office, and it still took ages.
Doesn't matter for ZH.
In addition, when you apply you will need a document from the Tax Office that you do not own any money, and I got it without having paid the provisional taxes.
Actually, I have never paid the provisional taxes