Unexpected Tax Bill

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

I received a tax bill for 2019 in the mail yesterday.

It said that I had to pay around 8500 CHF in tax for calendar year 2019. That seems a reasonable amount and the bill, in fact, explains how this amount was determined.

My Lohnausweis for that year, however, indicates that over 9000 CHF was deducted from my salary.

There is no indication of this in the bill received from the canton and the city, the Staats-und Gemeindesteurn.

I have contacted my tax preparer about this but have not received a reply.

I was thinking that maybe one of you may have had a similar experience and that submitting some kind of proof of withheld taxes is a necessary step. Or perhaps there is a way to consult online the amount of taxes withheld or paid by the tax payer?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

2
Hi All,

Related to this, I think I made an additional tax payment for the year in question via die Poste. Would anyone know of a way to track this in case the receipt was lost?

Thanks and have a great weekend!

3
As you pointed out your Lohnausweis indicates the withholding tax amount. This statement should have been submitted with the tax return, so the follow possibilities need to be checked:

- Was the statement submitted with the tax return

- Was it just an oversight at the tax office that it was not processed

- Did your employer make their return and pay over the amount withheld

If you made the additional tax payment over the counter at the post office and you have lost the receipt then it will be problematic if the amount was not received by the tax authorities. You can try the Post Office, but it will be very difficult for them to track it down, since you have no details and no way of even proving that you actually made any payment.

In 30+ years I've never head of the Post Office loosing a payment, so the chances are high that if you made the payment with an official payment slip that it went through.

4
Could it be that you made a payment for a different year? We once made this mistake and had to pay a fine even though tax authorities had that amount just booked for a different year.

5
The OP could consider ordering a tax account extract from Ct. Zurich at this link (about 3/4 of the page down):

https://www.zh.ch/de/steuern-finanze...-personen.html

6
The simplest is to call your communes tax office on Monday and ask about the situation. I might be fixed on the spot or you might have to send a formal objection afterwards.

Be aware about the time limits! If you miss them, you send the objection to late, the calculation and the bill becomes final!

Read carefully to where you have to send the objection. There might be two addresses, one if you object against the tax assessment, and one if you object against the amount on the bill (like in your case).

https://hausinfo.ch/de/finanzieren-k...entscheid.html

7
Thank you all!

I will call the tax office on Monday.

It appears that the tax preparer neglected to include the Lohnausweis. And it seems that I did not make an additional tax payment, as I had feared.

Best to all.

8
Hi Kevin, is this your first tax bill? Does the letter say "Schlussrechnung"? If it does not, don't worry. You get a few letters from the tax office until you get the final bill. First the send you a letter where they confirm all the inputs that make the basis for the calculation, which you have 30 days to contest. Then you receive a letter with the federal tax. Then another one with the cantonal and communal which includes the Schlussrechnung, which is the final payment or return. In the first couple of letters there is no mention whatsoever of your withholding tax or any additional tax payments, they are only included in the Schlussrechnung. I remember having had similar worries at first.

Actually, if I am not mistaken when you file your taxes there isn't any box where you shall input how much you paid from tax at source; they already have that information. Yes, it is included in your salary statement which you normally submit as attachment, but you don't include the number anywhere in your tax form, I believe.

9
The tax bill says Schlussrechnung. I can't understand how the withheld taxes were not forwarded to the Steueramt.

Would anyone know how I can find the Arbeitgebernummer of my previous employer?

Thanks!

10
By "tax preparer", I presume you mean the person e.g. bookkeeper, who completed your tax return.

When you phone the tax office, be sure to have all your dates, salary slips, reference numbers, etc., together. Start by saying that you're not sure that you understand what they've sent you, and then they'll probably connect you to the right person who can explain it.

Once you reach that person, say that you don't understand the bill you've received from them, and that you want to be sure to do the right thing tell them what kind of permit you have add that you think your bookkeeper, who submitted your tax return, might have omitted to include your Lohnausweis for that year, and ask whether they do/don't have it ask them to please check whether or not your former employer properly paid in the taxes they had deducted from you also, if you were here during the year prior to the one with the mix-up, ask them to check whether that previous year is all properly paid up ask them whether any payments have been made by your employer, for the following year. They might be willing to send you print-outs of each year.

Points 4. to 6. are because of what nopeno wrote, above, that it could be that payment was made, but landed in the account of a different calendar year. Been there, done that.

Then ask them what the correct steps are, from here on.

If, in fact, your former employer really did deduct taxes from your salary but neglect to pay those in, chase up the employer. Also: check with the AHV (mandatory social security) whether that employer also neglected to pay in your compulsory contributions, there, too. You don't want to have gaps.

11
Well I called the tax office and explained in adequate German that there was a discrepancy between the amount on the Schlussrechnung and the amiunt withheld on the Lohnausweis.

The tax guy explained that there is a separate agency that collects funds from enterprises and that this had not yet been applied to the Rechnung. He said that in a couple of days an email would be sent to me confirming this and that a revised bill would be sent.

So good news on the whole but I will wait for confirmation in the meantime.

Thank you all!

12
Thanks for reporting back. If there is a deadline to contest the bill and you do not hear back soon, don't forget to send an email and put this in writing just in case.

K

13
One important thing for OP:

Taxation is one of the most important things in Switzerland IMHO, and you need to keep every piece of paper related to taxation very safely, securely and methodically. In addition, you are supposed to keep them for 5 years in case they come back to you again.

14
Just keep an eye on the formal objection deadline. If you do not get the revised bill in good time, sent out a formal objection. Just to be safe.

15
Thanks a lot for the following link:

This basically confirmed that I would not have to pay any additional tax, and the same day I heard from my tax preparer who told me basically the same.

Would you know of a similar site with regard to canton Zug?

Thanks!

KD

16
To answer my own question, there is a similar web site for Zug, but you have to create your own login. To be able to access your tax information, you need to request a login. If you pay taxes in Zug - or have paid taxes there - you should be able to obtain a login pretty easily. The web site is https://www.zuglogin.ch/web/secure/ .

Note, however, that Kanton Zug sends your Kundennummer by mail and receiving it and your first time password may take up to a week.

To close the loop on the other issue that was discussed - the possible overpayment of tax in the Zurich canton - well, I found the receipt for the payment. Then a couple of days later - without prompting on my part - the Kantonales Steueramt sent me a notice that they would like to reimburse me for this payment. They requested bank info and just today my account was credited.

So I guess this whole thread could be summed up with the names of two of Shakespeare's plays - Much Ado About Nothing and All's Well That Ends Well.