I would say you may want to look at it from the angle of modern life: how many hours do you spend on your screen? Couldn’t that simply be done on the train? You are not going to recover the ‘wasted’ commute time anyway.
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It’s not just the wasted time, but the inconvenience. I used to live in Zurich and work in Basel and it was a PITA. Leave aside the 3 hours of commute per day. If you are in one place, you can probably only get to the other plance in 2 hours.
Some scheduling is simply impossible. You might have one item in one place and then you don’t have it in the other. Some items you can buy twice, others you can’t.
I am seriously considering this. Move to SZ in Q4 2026, be taxable for all 2026, stay employed to mid-2027. Savings for moving/ commuting hazzle for 6-9 months is massive, above 200k
i’d need hotel once or twice per week as commute would be too much .. bigger issue that spouse ( not yet) on board
?
Shouldn’t you move before year end to be taxable there?
The place of residence at the end of the year is relevant, i.e. on 31 December 2026.
I may have misread but I understood that it was expected to be taxable there for 2026.
Which canton do you live in now? What happens after 2027? Do you move back? Which canton is your employer in?
- A high taxed one
- I FIRE outside EU
- An even higher taxed one
seems like a lot of hassle for only 200k.
if it were 200k per year and for many years it might be worth considering, but if you’re already going to leave Switzerland in a year, it doesn’t seem worth the hassle.
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Not hassle free but 200k risk free, net of expenses.. For a year’s inconvenience - finding new home, moving, admin, commuting with hotel stays Mid week, getting a second car.
We do love our place, just not the tax bracket
Undecided.
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In my experience, it has much more value.
Also, not loving a place can have disastrous consequences. Divorce, child instability with long term mental health issue as adult, family disorder … I know an extreme case and the reason of moving was… exactly that.
And it did not help it was, dealing with the problems knowing the cause and getting into arguments blaming money being über alles…
YMMV and every situation is different. That can be a short term 2-people thing who agree and have an exit plan.
Just sharing.
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Counterpoint: I would totally be up for it.
They don’t even plan to stay in their current place, nor in the tax savings one.
What could be the worst that would happen? You don’t like it? Fire a couple of months earlier, still pocket what seems to be > 2/3 of 200k of tax savings for the year 2026. I’m not really buying the divorce risk if both are up for it. Nor the long term health risk and whatnot.
Sounds just like a very well paid move to me. (Then again, I don’t even earn as much as you pay in taxes so if 200k is pocket change to you, there’s no need to do it.)
I mean come on people…
Let’s say they move in December and moving costs are equal to what exceeds 200k, so they save 200k in 7 months.
Let’s say 8 months because of the hassle of moving.
That’s 25k NET per month.
Even if we deduct 5k for a second car, commuting, paying double rent for a month, higher rent in new place (might be lower) and other assorted expenses that’s still 20k per month (for two people).
Bonus: the planned next move would be easier because you had a test move.
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It depends on the situation. 200k for some people will be a life-changing amount. For others it will be pocket change.
But you have to look at the marginal utility of 200k vs the marginal cost/hassle of the move and year of disruption.
I’m gussing 200k will make no difference at all to finalcountdown’s lifestyle, whereas the move will cause a lot of hassle and conflict.
I was sharing an experience I said was different.
Spouse is not convinced though, that’s a potentially toxic starting point that made me think of it.
The only goal of my message is to make sure that every component and risk is reviewed, beyond tax saving.
The conclusion may as well be - let’s go for it. (And I wrote it)
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So spouse and I “discussed” and concluded on it, went something like this:
Me: “we can save a bunch of money by moving, imagine 250k extra”
She:” would it change anything”?
Me:”we could do a lot of cool stuff with .. well no”
She:”How long does it take you to make that money”?
Me:”Er, bonus makes lumpy.. but less than 3 months..”
She:”how does it compare to our expected yearly investment return”?
Me:”we should easily make much more than that”
She:”so no way”
Me:”ah ok”
So much for that idea. 
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Wise spouse 
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Called it 
Congrats!!!
Beside the commute there is another underrated issue: just finding a rental in ZG, SZ is very challenging and time consuming. Let alone getting something nice where you would like to live. Let alone something reasonably priced.
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