Is the incometax the same if you live in Zug, Cham or Baar? Are they all part of Zug canton?
Hi,
These towns are all in Zug, however tax is levied at the federal, cantonal and communal level in Switzerland, with the communes fixing their own rates of tax based on the cantonal tax legislation.
You can compare taxes at http://www.homegate.ch/homegate/fina...ault&a=default
wohnort = name of commune (current, planned)
einkommen = taxable income (ideally after pensions and AHV), put your salary here, plus income from savings (it will give you a worst case number)
vermoegen = taxable assets (you can put zero here for now)
zivilstand = maritial status, ledig = single
religion, choose keine unless you really want to fund the swiss church
kinder, number of kids.
Daniel
IF you are newly arrived and are paying "Quellensteuer" or PAYE then yes the tax is the same irrespective of where in canton Zug you live.
Would it be possible to post a brief explanation as to why this is the case or a link to a thread where it is explained please. I've looked but didn't find anything. Thanks.
Here is a start:
Many thanks. I'm afraid I still don't get it though.
I thought the principle was that tax is levied at the federal, cantonal and communal level. If one is paying Quellensteuer/PAYE how come there is one rate for the whole canton and how does that work if communities have autonomy in determining their own tax and spend needs?
Quellensteuer is collected by the company making your salary payments in the form of a deduction (PAYE). The company then receives a small handling charge(typically 4%) and passes the rest on to the cantonal quellensteuer department. They then split the money into three pots. One they pay to the state, one to the commune where the employee is registered and the other they keep. IF the employee earns a sum in excess of 120K then it is necessary to follow the normal taxation route and a tax assessment is made at the local commune level. The local commune then says how much each of the three tax collectors should see from the respective pots. If there is anything left over this is returned to the employee and if not then a bill is sent to the employee to cover the deficit. The chances of having a 100% hit are more or less 0!
Is that clearer?
Your explanation is! Cheers.
so basically if you are earning over CHF120k it does matter where you live right even in the first year - so you can't live in a "high" tax area and only pay a standard rate of tax, you will still end up paying the higher taxes, just at the end of the year rather than each month.
I am sure that is it, just wanted to check again - sorry
Yes my understanding is that if you were paying at source for a few years and then you find yourself above the threshold this year then you will need to be taxed with different rates.
Instead of the cantonal average, they will look into your specific Gemeinde and what tax rates that one has.
Then you'll do your tax return and they will see how much you paid already and how much you should have paid. For example if you live in Baar you should be better off as it has the lowest rates in the whole canton so by paying the average you were overpaying.
My question is though: if you were below the threshold for 2 years and only this year you cross it and are asked to file a tax return, will they retroactively go back to cover all previous years as well and recalculate them or not?
No, as you were below the threshold the previous years and as you were taxed at source it was taken care off there and then...