Investing with the plan of leaving Switzerland

Hello guys!

How would you frame an investing strategy if there was a strong possibility of leaving Switzerland in, say, 1-5 years to move to the EU (Italy in my case)?

My personal situation is the following:

  • never invested before
  • plan to invest soon around 30k/50k CHF in ETFs (probably a single world ETF to start)

My problems are:

  • Does it make sense to invest this amount of money in a country with a significant capital gain tax? Or potential earnings are not worth the time you invest on it?
  • Does it make sense to invest this amount of money if you plan to change country? Do you have to expect fixed costs in the change that may make it unworthy?
  • Which broker to choose? I would have gone for IB, but in Italy as long as I understand IB implies needing a consultant for the tax declaration that costs 100-200 EUR per year.
  • Which ETF to pick? Looking around in the forum it looks like US-domiciled ETFs are advised in Switzerland, but apparently they are not in the EU.

Sorry for all these questions. If you had similar problems in the past, even if they don’t match mine, it would be very helpful for me if you share :slight_smile: (also if you think I am missing something important, as I probably do)

Thank you!

I don’t understand what’s the problem you’re having. You can sell everything any day before leaving Switzerland paying no capital gains tax and reinvest everything according to best practices for your new country shortly thereafter

In the US there is capital gains tax but people still invest. It’s a tax, it doesn’t wipe out all your gains.
Anyhow in your time-frame it’s also quite likely that we have a capital loss, see previous recessions.

Why not? There is probably also a double-taxation treaty US-EU, no? Or do you mean due to PRIIPS regulatory problem? But then you can still keep what you acquired in CH. And who knows if in 5 years this is still a “problem”. Or we have completely different problems.

Thanks for the answers :slight_smile:

I am not at all expert so I was wondering if there are any big hidden costs in selling and rebuying everything, but if you say it is fine it’s perfect.

@rolandinho I was concerned about the PRIIPS regulations. Thanks for your explanations!

Hi Kagoda,
Thanks for posting this topic. I am in a similar situation (thinking about investing in a risky period before having to sell it all and buy it again in the next residency country). Planning to leave in 2-3 years to travel on a boat for 3 years.
What did you do eventually?
Ciao

Hi,

Sorry if I reply so late, but I did not access the forum for a long time.
At the end I invested as above in Switzerland. For the moment I’m still in Switzerland, I will probably sell and rebuy it in the next home country.

Can’t you keep the residence in Switzerland if you travel on a boat? I guess you will not be resident anywhere else in this case.