You live in the canton of Thurgau from 2 January 2026 to 31 August 2026 and are registered with the residents’ registration office there only.
After that, you move to the canton of Nidwalden and live there from 1 September 2026 to 1 January 2027, and are registered with the residents’ register there only.
You only ever have one home and are only ever registered with the residents’ register at that address.
In which canton do you have to pay your income tax and wealth tax?
I read online that it depends on where you live on 31 December of that year.
If that’s the case, would that mean you only have to pay your taxes in the canton of Nidwalden?
Correct, it’s the tax domicile on the 31st of December.
(That said if you keep moving around – since you mention leaving on the 1st of January 2027 --, the question of where the domicile truly is can be questioned, tax domicile doesn’t necessarily match the domicile where you’re registered)
Have there been any cases where someone has moved to a canton or municipality just before 31 December to save on tax and then moved away again afterwards?
Is there any experience of this?
Where is the cut-off point?
Example:
You live in the canton of Thurgau from 2 January 2026 to 31 October 2026 and are registered with the residents’ registration office there only.
You then move to the canton of Nidwalden and live there from 1 November 2026 to 5 January 2027, and are registered with the residents’ register there only.
Do you then only have to pay income tax and wealth tax in the canton of Nidwalden, even though you only lived there for two months? Do you not have to pay any tax in any of the other cantons?
What if you only lived in Nidwalden from 1 December 2026 to 5 January 2027 (i.e. one month)?
Your story implies you’d move away from Nidwalden again after a few weeks.
Why would you change your center of living so quickly in succession? Especially when you plan it all in advance. You’ll need solid answers to such questions.
“Moving” to a low-tax canton every silvester will not fly
As mentioned tax domicile is not necessarily the same as where you’re registered.
Obviously if you only live in a place for a few months per year (conveniently around the cutoff date) that’s not where your center of life is…
Just pay your taxes where your primary long term residence is, the 31st December cutoff is for having a simple decision point for the (rare) cases where someone changes residence, if that where to change multiple times per year that’s far from the spirit of it.
The only way I could see such a thing working is if you are truly constantly moving around with no clear primary place of residence. E.g. a contract worker that goes all over Switzerland for their work and plans their contracts around being in a low tax canton for new year might be fine.
And even then, AI is telling me that it probably wouldn’t work, because you need “intent to settle long term”, and the last “long term settled place” would be used instead.
Edit: I see nabalzbhf has the same “long term” condition.
What if, every year, you live in the canton of Thurgau from 5 January 2026 to 30 June 2026 and in the canton of Nidwalden from 1 July 2026 to 4 January 2027?
So, you live in the canton of Thurgau for 6 months and in the canton of Nidwalden for 6 months. However, on 31 December of each year, you are living in the canton of Nidwalden.
In which canton do you then have to pay your taxes?
Nidwalden - until a canton or municipality suspects tax fraud and conduct an investigation. And then it’s a matter of figuring out where the center of your life is. And as a government worker, I would automatically assume/biased that it’s not Niedwalden.
My prediction: may - but not guaranteed - to get away with it once, or even twice.
But being resident for only part of the year without paying wealth tax? You either have only a low net worth (for which that spiel doesn’t make economic sense) or won‘t get away with it more often than that.
Third time you’re trying to pull such a stunt, I‘d be going to make it personal.
Are you changing your address in all your accounts (insurances, health care, banks, etc.) on each move? If not, why not?
Are you renting in both places? What are the conditions of the rental contracts? Are they terminated when you move, or are you keeping your rentals in both places going indefinitely? Are your moving your household (furniture, etc.). Do you have a car? Do you get new tags? If not, why not?
Actually really moving your place of living is costly, in terms of money and energy. Attempting to appear moving the place of living, while evading the costs, will be treated differently.
You wouldn’t always change your address, as you can set up a mail forwarding service.
No, you only ever rent one place at a time. I’d already mentioned that at the very top. Tenancy agreements are always terminated when you move house. Your household contents are taken with you when you move.
You own a car. However, you don’t apply for new number plates.
Sounds like a lot of effort, just settle permanently in a place you like.
Anyway if you keep moving the two cantons will scrutinize it and the 31st December rule doesn’t apply (they’ll decide where your center of life is, be ready to document how much time you spend in each place, where your family/partner/friends live, where you work, etc)
You won’t get a definitive answer because it doesn’t exist.
You can’t preemptively game fringe tax cases because that’s not how the system works. It doesn’t rely on making sure every case has a box to check that will tell how it will be handled, it relies on the tax offices, people and, if it comes to that, judges using their common sense within the framework of the law.
It’s economical and is in part what allows the taxes to be cheap.
You have 3 options:
evaluate if your behavior makes logical sense outside of the framework of dodging taxes while still using benefits coming from them. If it does, great, if it doesn’t, assume it will get challenged and you (as in subject to your specific case which only you know) will have to justify it.
still want to game every corner of the system. You need a professional, specialized advisor for that. They have their own avenues and knowledge of fringe cases which random people on a forum don’t. That’s how the system works. You pay fees to them, they consume and get taxed and everybody is happy.
still want to be able to game everything preemptively while being cheap about it. That is not how Switzerland works. You won’t fit here and you probably won’t be happy. Find a country that suits your mindset.
But what’s the point of moving back and forth? I’m really curious. The weather or availability of short term housing? Is it tax avoidance? Because it sounds a bit like it.
Which begs the questions why not settle in a low tax place for good? Or settle where you like and pay the taxes. Even high tax isn’t that much for a proper Privatier.
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are you asking for a friend?