Declaring assets that have never been declare

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I have some assets (crypto and stocks) which I bought 3-4 years ago. I have not yet declared these assets to the Swiss tax authorities, I am a B permit holder and therefore am taxed at source. How should I declare these assets considering the fact that I bought them quite some years ago? Is it fine to simply just declare the assets and therefore pay the wealth tax for that year, or will I have to pay wealth tax for the years prior?

I don’t really want to evade paying taxes, it just turns out that my initial investment has accrued in value since then, and I would like to sell some of them soon.

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That’s exactly what you did for 3 or 4 years by the looks of it…unless it was an unsignificant amount, or unless you arrived in Switzerland more recently.

This might depend on your canton, but you should be able to turn yourself in spontaneously and pay all the taxes dues without additional fees (apart from interests) and without going into justice. Wealth tax is generally very low so it won’t be a massive amount of money. Check your canton’s website, as I said I’m not sure it’s the same everywhere.

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You were taxed at source, so the question is when you were required to file a declaration based on your wealth.

I think I’ve read somewhere the ‘should declare’ threshold is around 80k invested assets or so. But I’m not sure.

The years you were below that amount for sure are not a problem. Even if, just file your declaration now. Unless you were hiding millions, most likely is they they’ll just ask you to declare retrospectively.

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No experience for crytos. I bought some mutual funds in my home country, while being on B permit here (tax at source, under 120K salary so no tax return was filed). When I got C permit, I filed my tax return for first time and declared those funds. No questions were asked. They are being taxed a as wealth since then.

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Note that the thresholds for extra income and wealth have changed (afaik they used to be higher).

They depend from canton to canton, OP will need to check their canton’s website for guidance.

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Thanks all for the swift replies.

The amount was quite insignificant at the time below 10k CHF. But this has now risen quite significantly, about 5x or so. Not sure if the former, and/or the latter are considered insignificant or not?

It’s a bit ambiguous whether declaring is required for B Permit holders with a salary below 120k CHF. I will check with my canton (Basel Stadt) to find out when I would be required to file a declaration based on my wealth. Thanks for suggesting this @expatriate .

At first glance, based on the online tax calculator for Basel-Stadt it seems like 75,000 CHF could be the threshold (assuming that is what is meant in the line item “Steuerbares Vermögen”). Let’s see what the tax office says.

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Quick update on this, I checked with the BS tax office and this was their response on when B permit holders must declare their assets:

Sie müssen erst ab einem Vermögen von CHF 250’000.00 eine Steuererklärung ausfüllen.

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