- I hold a B-permit (withholding tax) and got married last year and registered outside Switzerland (non-EU country).
- My wife will come next year with her own working permit (does not need to depend on me).
- We haven't registered / reported to Swiss government yet.
Now, I heard from some friends that since marriage will change your tax status.
Question:
1. If we report with our marriage certificate, will the government trace back to the registration date and charge the unpaid tax (from last year till now)? How will the government do that?
2. If the above is true, let's say (might be illegal), what if that we go to some country, where marriage registration does not need "single status certificate", get a new marriage certificate and use that to update the marriage status in Switzerland?
(Sweden or Denmark can do that. AFAIK)
One of my swiss friends told me that many people here won't register for marriage until they want a baby... is this really true?
AFAIK the tax at source tariff applied for both single or married couples with one residing in Switzerland is Axx. When your wife moves here the tax tariff will change to Bxx if one of you is working or Cxx if both of you are working. https://www.zh.ch/de/steuern-finanze…ml#-1685978563
If you look at the tariff table, the A tariff is higher than the B tariff for the same salary. Whenever there is a tax tariff change e.g. a child is born the tax department sends a letter to the employer with the effective date of the new tariff code, so it can be in your favor or against.
If you earn more than 120k then you would need to do a tax return which is then a different story altogether!
If you are married but your wife lives abroad, you are still considered single for tax purposes. You update the marital status for the town registry/foreigner police (or what it is called in your canton).
If your wife comes here on her own, as single unrelated to you, she will need a rental contract to register and get her permit; she won't have that.
Lastly, who said that being married increases your taxes? It depends on many factors, such as salaries and location.
In most, places and circumstances a double earning household will pay more tax being married than being single. Take a look at the tax at source tables for tarif A for say 100k and double it to represent the tax paid by two unmarried people earning 100k each. Now look at Tarif C for earnings of 200k. It will be more than double the amount on 2x100k on tarif A.
This is because the tax curve is progressive and the married income is combined.
There’s supposed to be something in the works to eliminate the “marriage penalty”, but I haven’t seen anything about it for some time.
Comparis.ch notes this regarding the “marriage penalty” (translated):
"Who is affected by the “marriage penalty”?
The “marriage penalty” mainly affects higher-earning couples with similar incomes. It is irrelevant for low and varying incomes. The tax disadvantage also has an impact on the AHV pension. Married pensioners receive at most one and a half times the maximum single pension. On the other hand, cohabiting couples do not receive an AHV widow’s pension.
How can married dual earners save taxes?
In order to compensate for the disadvantages of the higher progression, married dual earners can claim the second earner deduction. This is deducted from the lower income."
Looks like a proposal will be made to parliament in Spring 24. Whether that actually leads to anything is another question entirely… (Link in German/French/Italian only I’m afraid).
https://www.individualbesteuerung.ch
This one I guess. Enough votes collected now.
In my opinion, Switzerland should make every effort to make children… And for many people, this may not happen if they don’t get married.
Based on what I learned, the current status is more like a historical legacy when most women didn’t work – this circumstance doesn’t apply anymore and the law should be changed somehow.