Tax on foreign wealth Geneva

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1
Hi all,

I am almost done filing my taxes for the canton of Geneva and there is something that seems a bit too good to be true so I want to check it here.

I have a decent bit of real estate in the UK, and I was under the impression that Geneva was more or less going to take 1% of my money every single year based on the asset value of my UK assets.

In one of the final pages of the software it calculates my tax and there it seems that it puts my UK assets in "part non imposable", which translates to part that is not subject to taxes.

Is it possible that this entire time I was worried about the Geneva authority taking money from my UK assets when in fact they don't!?

In which cash it only raises the tax basis for my Swiss wealth, but given I have virtually no Swiss assets, this is really not an issue.

Then my follow on question, my UK bank account has a bit of cash in it - I assume as this is cash it gets taxed as Swiss assets (would be nice if someone could confirm as well). But then, the easy solution is just for me to buy more UK assets and then that would avoid any wealth tax?

And then a follow, follow on question, more out of curiosity. This is regarding the forfait - I know a couple of people who are under the forfait regime in Geneva, if your assets are abroad, why would you do this? Is it because dividends and coupons you receive abroad are so big that you are better off paying a lump sump to the Geneva tax man?

Thank you in advance for enlightening me, and please let it be true that Geneva doesn't tax my UK real estate and it only increases my tax base

2
The way i understand it is as follows:

1) foreign real estate affects your wealth tax rate, but is not taxable

2) foreign bank accounts / financial assets etc are taxable for welth tax purposes.

(This is based on a conversation with a tax advisor in vaud)

3
Correct, UK real estate assets

4
Foreign real estate is indeed not taxed in Switzerland, it only affects the tax rate. This applies to both wealth and income taxes (satzbestimmendes Vermögen/Einkommen). You may have to pay taxes in the UK, though. I don't know whether/how real estate is taxed in the UK.

Bank accounts and also securities such as stocks and funds are considered movable property and are taxed in Switzerland independent of where they are held, assuming your tax residence is in Switzerland.

I.e. if you buy UK real estate with cash (independent of where the cash is currently held), this part of your wealth will no longer be taxed in Switzerland. However, if you buy other UK assets such as UK stock, it will still be taxed here.

5
Incredible news! Thank you both for your complete answers. Made my day