It's not your employer's obligation to explain the tax system to you, or "make it transparent" to you - whether that's in Switzerland or elsewhere. In Switzerland I'd say an employer's obligation is even less realistic than in other countries, as the taxation in Switzerland depends so much on where the employee lives, his/her personal situation (spouse, kids, mortgage etc).
It sounds like the employer is willing to continue its contractual obligation to pay the school fees - the tax impact is a personal issue for you.
THere are federal regulations allowing certain costs (such as schooling) to be tax-deductible or not-taxable for expats for maximum 5 years. Kantons have implemented the regulations differently, and you'd need to ask Vaud tax authority for their regulation. However sometimes the concession is allowed for "foreigners on local contracts" as long as the individual was recruited from outside Switzerland (i.e. not already in the Swiss labour pool). This is either at kanton level, or by agreement between the employer and the kanton tax authority. My employer has such an agreement in place.
see appendix D of this document
http://www.pwc.com/us/en/hr-internat...folio-2013.pdf
You have had 5 years of extremely high benefits that most people never see, consider yourself lucky!
Not fun to hear, but a fair point. OP, have you reviewed your original contract section where it talks about the benefit? Maybe there's a bit in small print that says there could be tax implications or when the benefits end, etc.? Maybe even a statutory reference? Doesn't hurt to look, as it might give you more information to work with - you don't want to go into your office making accusations without reading the contract first.
You are of course correct, however a good employer would make sure that an expat employee is made aware of some of the bigger surprises that may await them. When I went to Japan our HR department told me clearly that on my first year I would pay no income tax (it's paid in arrears), but that I would be paying an extra heavy tax bill when I leave and I should put the money aside. It was useful information to have. Had I not been told, it could have potentially been embarrassing.
I will try to brief my question related to school fees and legality.
I came Switzerland in Nov 2014. When I signed contract for getting Swiss work permit my company was paying 75% of school fees.
Suddenly company changed policy and now company is not paying anything for employee`s children school fees.
One of my friend told me that it is mandatody for orgizations to support for school fees in Switzerland. But he was not 100% sure about this.
Please let me know if there is any law which mandates company to support for emplyees school fee.
Thanks in advance.
It is not mandatory to help with school fees. And as per another post you are not paying any social security here I would rather think you cannot expect any support from that.
Thanks
roegner for quick reply.
I am not paying social security here because it is mandated by my company to sign COC. We have been told that there is some agree between India and Switzerland based on which it is mandatory to sign COC and pay social security (provident fund) in India and no need to pay in Switzerland. Similar agreement is also in place between India and Germany.
What made him think that?
This seems to me a totally random thing to claim.
Think about it.
If this was the case, wouldn't everybody's kids be in private schooling?
The obvious thing to do is to send them to public school, then there will be no school fees.
Tom
- plus kids get integrated and pick up local language and culture much more quickly.
- plus you remove the stigma associated with private schooling (often you end up finding in private schools the kids who are unable to cope with the pressure of the regular system)
Agree with you...
Private schools put lot of unneccesory pressure...
For my son (4 year old) I will go for German school and for my daughter I will go for bilingual school.
Again thank you for your quick reply...