First of all, welcome everybody! This is my first post here.
I moved to Switzerland 6 years ago (B permit). Since then, I have always been employed and earning more than 120k CHF annually. I pay (actually, my company pays) withholding tax on a monthly basis.
What worries me is that I have never received tax forms. Iām especially concerned because I also have a lot of stocks (my portfolio is composed mainly of Polish and French stocks, 500k CHF in total, and Iām definitely more of an āactiveā than āpassiveā trader) and some cryptocurrencies.
Should I proactively contact the tax office and ask them to send me the missing tax forms? Iām a bit worried that, year after year, my trading history is getting bigger and it will be challenging to report trades back to, letās say, 2018. I also contribute yearly to pillar 3a, but I have never deducted it.
Thatās certainly above the paygrade of the forum I feel.
You should have been doing a tax declaration from the first year already (and your wealth also requiring you to do that as you are over the thresholds of every canton since years probably) and you also should have been paying wealth tax since years as well.
You also needed to be pro-active 6 years ago already, to request the tax papers on your end and not wait for that to happen.
I have no clue how the tax office handles this and if itās even possible to properly backfill taxes (probably not).
This may be even time to consult a lawyer specializing in taxes first (I may be exaggerating here)
Iāve just called tax office (Steueramt), they were also surprised but they also mentioned that sometimes people get tax forms āin one batch after 5 yearsā. I sent them email with details.
If you interested I will keep you updated. For me itās a bit unusual that I have to ask to pay my taxes.
I guess, they just missed you.
Also after 5y it should be possible to get a C-permit (or are you non EU, which would surprise me since you have French/Polish stocks).
I think the situation can potentially be a bit hairy as @Tony1337 mentioned, because in many cantons you have other conditions where you are required to fill taxes even if your Swiss salary is under a certain limit (e.g. taxable wealth: the tax office canāt know how much money/assets you own, so it must be you who proactively communicate to the tax office that you have to submit taxes by a certain date once the conditions are met).
So regardless of the tax office missing your 120k salary threshold, I might have been that you nevertheless had to proactively request a tax declaration years ago - so worth double checking with the tax office that they are indeed cool with you retroactively filing all those years
Honestly, I always thought that eligible for wealth tax are only property owners and people with more than 1 milion in assets. Now I read that this is not necesserily true.
I hope I will be able to fix it with ZH tax office. Iām willing to pay, itās just I didnāt know so far that I have to (although for someone it might be not an excuse).
I wouldnāt worry too much, Iād bet theyāll just ask you to fill them out. (that said, heads up if you have a high salary and live in Stadt ZĆ¼rich, tax at source is below the real city tax rate, so youāll probably owe a 5 figure sum, even taking into account 3a deduction).
Once you fill stuff out, Iād compute your actual tax liability and compare with what was withheld at source (should be in your Lohnausweis). Then you can already pay the difference (otherwise you might have to wait 2-3y before you get the bill, and the bill will keep accruing 1% interest until your receive it).
I can concur, as long as you come from yourself, they are pretty chill.
On the other hand I can confirm that in ZH, that normally they come towards you when the salary threshhold is passed (wealth might be trickier for them).
A few years delay is normal for Zurich. Five is surprising, but not much. The explanation Iāve heard is that they are getting your tax-at-source, so not in a hurry. They start doing things faster and faster once you get the C permit
I live in Zurich with permit B and this year my salary exceeded the 120K threshold. I called the tax office (Support zur Online und Offline SteuererklƤrung erhalten | Kanton ZĆ¼rich) and they told me I should automatically receive the paperwork by post in January 2025.
However, in case I do not, they suggested calling directly this number: 0432593700
I also live in ZH, moved there in 2018 from Germany and earned more than 120k per year.
They also forgot to send me any tax forms for 3 years and, when I called them to inquire about my situation, they said it was a āglitchā in the system. This was in 2021, it seems the āglitchā still exists even now, judging by the situation described in this thread.
Long story short, after contacting the tax authorities pro-actively myself (after waiting for 3 years for them to contact me) they sent me tax forms for the past 3 years and I had to pay 5-figure additional taxes per year.
They were however very lenient with me and didnāt expect me to fill the tax forms in the official allowed period, I had 6+ months to deliver tax forms for 3 years in total.
After cleaning up the mess from the past i.e. filling out the tax forms and paying the additional tax, they sent me the tax forms for the next years promptly without me having to wait and eventually to ask them pro-actively for it.
So it seems to me that ZH has a bug in their software which leads to a (consistent) delay in the initial tax āonboardingā of B-permit residents making more than 120k per year.
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