How to get an idea of how many taxes will I pay? Confused about tax calculators

Taxes
1

Hi there,

This is my first post, I’m not living in Switzerland yet, but I’ve received a job offer today, and when I told them it was too low, the guy answered that I need to take into account the low taxes in the country. He says he only pays 15% of his salary in taxes.

I didn’t know what to answer to that, it seems to me too low. I previously used this tax calculator: 105000 income tax calculator 2021 - Basel-Stadt - salary after tax which says for 105k it is around 30%.

But then, having a look at the pinned post, there is another calculator: Cookie Not accepted

This one says I would pay 17% of taxes, which is more similar to what the interviewer was saying (but still looks too good to be true)

I don’t need an exact number, just an approximation because I’m comparing between this job in Switzerland, and a remote job around Europe.

Could anybody help me? Some data:

  • The job is in Basel.
  • I’m single, no kids, no religion, 30 years old
2

The 17% is only income tax, the 30% is both your social security deductions and your income taxes, so the result shows you the net after tax pay.

Also, taxation depends on where you live, not where you work. Basel is on the higher end in terms of taxation.

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Aren’t taxes irrelevant since you could be doing the remote job from CH and benefit from the low tax (but high CoL) so not sure it’s worth it?

(Assuming your passport gives you right of work in CH)

4

Switzerland is not really low tax. It’s only low in comparison to its neighbors some of which have totally insane rates of tax. Come to Romania / Bulgaria / Ukraine for remote work for westerners, tax+social is like 5-10%. very cheap col, beautiful girls/boys etc

Re swiss tax - comparis.ch has fairly accurate tax calculator in my experience. Take the Quellensteuer version, as it takes gross income as input and automatically applies standard deductions. Even if you’re not going to be on Quellensteuer system it’s still a very good first approx. Non-QS calculators need net income after tax deductions to work and you’re not in a position to estimate it accurately. But that’s all just pure tax, don’t forget about significant mandatory social charges on top ~5-7% (AHV + unemployment etc) and pension fund and health insurance.

5

More relevant would the profession or the area of work and your educational background. 105k sounds ok for a entry level position with a BSc or MSc.

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Thank you all very much for your responses, I wasn’t considering the social security!

I’m a senior mobile developer (6 years of experience). I’m trying to negotiate with them, but they keep saying everybody with my experience earns that amount in their company. In the end they’re offering 110k. It think it’s too low, isn’t it?

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What does glassdoor say?

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@Romulus if you haven another offer that’s higher and they’re not willing to match it, are there non-monetary reasons that would make you join that company? Do they offer really good benefits (e.g. 2nd pillar)?

Otherwise it doesn’t makes sense. Those things happens, and if they don’t want to pay market rate, they’ll have to learn over time and eventually adjust (hopefully they won’t also lose their current employees in the process, otherwise it’s a costly lesson for them).

From what I’m seeing they’re also sending you the message you won’t get much increase over the coming years, right?

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@ChickenFat In a salary guide that I found in the forum says the average is something around 110-120. Glassdoor says 111k, so I guess this is it.

@nabalzbhf The only other non monetary reason (which is a very good reason, but I don’t know if it’s enough) is that I would finally be able to live in Switzerland… We haven’t talked anything about 2nd pillar.

However, they’ve told me several times that in the coming years, they’ll increase the salary, but my experience tells me that this doesn’t happen so easily.

The other company offers less money, but it’s remote and the company is better for my progression.

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Ok, if you don’t have right to work (eg EU passport), that makes sense. But otherwise I don’t think there’s anything preventing you from moving to CH to get a remote position.

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Hehe yeah I’ve heard that too many times recently. I’d accept the position but then start looking for other options within 12 months or so. If your main goal is to get a foot in to the door to live in Switzerland it’s an acceptable salary

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Keep in mind that you are speaking based on average number. Take the median and you will see that the majority of workers in CH does not earn this salary (and will never reach it during their lives).

1 Like
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This is definitely true, but this isn’t an average job either (it’s one of the best paying fields at the moment).