First time doing taxes with B permit

Taxes
1

Hi everyone,

This year I will finally fill my taxes for the first time in canton of Bern having B permit.

I plan to pay all 3rd Pilar amount before the end of the year, but this would also be my first time contributing to 3rd Pillar. Additionally, I also started investing this year on IB buying Vanguard WRLD ETFs.

I wanted to ask you guys if there´s something I should be aware of before doing them, or any specific suggestion that you might have for me :slight_smile:

Cheers and have nice Christmas time

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  • Choose a 3a provider that you can leave to another provider at any time (e.g. Viac, Finpension, Frankly etc.). Don’t take out 3a insurance unless you have good reasons.
  • Pay into a new 3a accounts every year until you have ~5 accounts. The accounts can all be with the same provider. After that you pay into the account with the lowest value.
  • If you have a long investment horizon: invest your 3a assets.
3

Hi Lloren,
If the tax declaration is not being triggered due to the 120kCHF/y limit, be sure that you know what you are doing before requesting a recalculation of your tax-at-source. It’s enough to have declared once, that you will have to keep declaring every year afterwards.

In the past it was possible to file a simplified tax declaration, aimed solely to claiming back pillar 3a contributions. Now they removed this option (at least in ZH). Note that a full declaration may not be beneficial, even declaring the pillar 3a money, in case you reside in a high tax gemainde (e.g. Zurich city > ZH average > Kilchberg) and if you then forget to use all the possible deductions, can result in a higher taxation than what you have already paid.
There are calculators online, you can do a couple of simulations and cross check if paying (wealth tax + actual communal tax) is better than what is witheld now as B permit resident.

On the other hand, make sure to only put money in a pillar 3a if you then declare it, otherwise you end up paying taxes on that money twice (at source and upon withdrawal).

4

I am actually living in a low tax gemainde in Bern, that is also why I thought it would be a good idea to fill the taxes. Also I will get my C permit next years, that is why I am not so much concerned about triggering the fact that I fill taxes already this year.

Thanks for the comments I will run few simulations considering the canton of Bern and see if it makes sense after all.