Hi! It’s the first year I’m paying my taxes in full as a settled resident. I’ve received a provisional (estimate) invoice only for cantonal and municipal taxes, while for the federal tax when asked they said they are going to issue a provisional invoice for 2025 in February 2026. I find it strange. Isn’t it too late? It’s basically time to declare factual not estimated taxes for 2025? The canton is Zug. Thanks!
They know better than you when you have to pay the taxes, don’t stress… 
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True, but is there any logic in it?
They base it on an estimate and you´ll get funds back if you paid too much. Similar to the other taxes. Why, do you want to pay earlier?
It’s strange but it is how it is. You pay provisional tax before Mach 31 next year and get the final invoice in a few months after you submit your tax declaration.
What I find really strange is that if you pay a bigger amount (because you have to finish your Tax Declaration also until March 31 and you know exactly how much you should pay), they will first return you the difference only to claim it back after a few months. Where is the logic?
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No, it’s not similar to other taxes. You can pay the canton whatever amount you want and they pay you back the difference only after they know the final amount.
And in the case of the federal tax that don’t allow you to pay more than a provisional amount, even when you already know what the final amount should be.
They don’t want to pay you interest on the excess
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At least this is after the year has ended.
In my canton, they make me pay tax during the year before the year has ended. So I have to estimate the tax due and pay that. If I under-estimate it, they charge huge interest penalties. If I overpay, they pay little or no interest.
At least with federal tax, the tax is due after the year end, when you have at least a chance to calculate your taxes. Plus, they pay you a reasonable amount of interest if you pay too much.
Ah so it’s everywhere like this with the federal tax? Good to know
As for the cantonal and municipal provisional tax they also offered a 2 percent discount if I payed early, I’ll try to benefit from that by paying early indeed but it’s a strange concept to me too, because what if the factual tax is higher in the end, what happens then to this discount, is it void
Normally, an estimate preceeds the year, i.e. once pays for 2025 in late 2024 or early 2025 (if he wants to, but at least he’ll need to fill in an estimate and get an invoice).
I am surprised that with the federal tax it’s a bit “delayed”, i.e. an estimate for 2025 only when it’s already early 2026.
I don’t want them to pay me interest, just avoid sending the money there and back without purpose. If I know already how much I should pay for the last year, why should I pay some fake amount based on the calculations of the year before last? I just don’t get it.
Because we all live in the same federation, you know. Would be strange if the federal tax was paid differently.
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My actual tax is less than what they say, but I think, in the future, I’m going to just pay what they ask and collect the interest as it is far more than I would get at the bank.
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Because your income in 2024 reduced comparing with an income in 2023? But it’s not a typical scenario. If your income reduces every year, then you have problems. Having some interest from overpaid tax won’t compensate the loss.
In the meantime I’ve clarified with the tax office and it’s possible to make an advance payment for the federal tax too if I want to, they’ll send me a blank invoice for that as well.
I would say in simple terms you pay the invoices they send, federal year X - they send invoice in february year X + 1, cantontal/gemeinde for year X they send estimate in june year X (canton schwyz), if you pay before july you have a discount (and no it is not void, even if you paid too little), then in year X+1 you submit your declaration for year X, and around may X+1 (canton schwyz) you get definitive invoices for year X (all discounts, zinsen if you paid too much all accounted and will be displayed in calculation). I heard that in zurich it works a bit different, that you are free to pay arbitrary amount of money on provisional invoices, but in schwyz you cannot do that you either pay early with a discount or you pay in three installments without discount until end of year X or full invoice without discount until end of year X.
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Thanks! Schwyz seems to be similar to Zug then, and it is good to know the discount isn’t void. I think for the federal one I will also pay early just to have it off my mind since there’s this option.
Yes, in Zurich they send you a provisional bill with the whole amount, 3 bills with 1/3 amount and an empty bill where you can indicate the amount yourself. We get positive interest rates for everything that we pay before September 30.
Oh this is interesting. I thought that it’s everywhere like in ZH that you’re allowed to just pay more if you already know the new estimate. Well, so in ZG/SZ when you change job for better paid or just receive a nice bonus, say 50k you’ll end up with underpaid tax at the final assessment because you have to stick to the provisional assessment? I guess you’ll be liable for interests on the unpaid gap.
Hopefully interest only charged from when they give you the new higher invoice with some grace period.