I did all by myself.
The only problem I had was after coming back to Switzerland; the taxman wanted proof that I have been living in Costa Rica. Renting contract, car papers, credit card statements and so on. They wanted proof that I did not live in my house in Switzerland too in form of electricity and water bills.
I think this was explained already somewhere, but here we go:
It may be a good idea to take out that money and invest it yourself. Steps:
The guys at Schwyzer Kantonalbank know exactly how to proceed, I did use the office in Pfäffikon, a short beautiful train ride from Zurich along the lake.
Tax wise this may be better than to take out something for buying a house. Can be done quiet fast. But check the tax situation in your final country first, maybe you need to stay out until end of year.
Is that because you had hardly any income in Lux for the tax year of withdrawal?
Correct, I worked only 5 months in that particular year and considered myself FIRE-d for the remainder.
What’s your take on step 2 ?
I went to Costa Rica, but this is more than 11 years ago. They have a tax now in theory since a few years. I think Paraguay is tax free too. And a lot of other countries of course.
You could go to GB, they have no tax on lump sum pension payments.
Assumptions: you did that well before retirement age.
You’re Swiss.
You have now Swiss residency even if living part of the year abroad.
You went back to Switzerland before retirement age.
I may be partly or totally wrong 
If at least a bit right, what does the return trip look like concerning this matter ? I also assume you were never employed in Switzerland afterwards, that helps.
Correct.
I was 51 years of age when I FIREd.
Lucky I collected all kind of proof that I was not in Switzerland for 2 years. Water and electricity bills, credit card and bank statements, rental contracts, car papers, residence permissions and so on. The taxman wanted to see all this.
The problem was not even that I have been out of country, they did not lose tax there. The problem was between the Kantons of Zurich and Schwyz, because I paid my tax on the lump sum in Schwyz at around half the rate (4.8% instead of 8.3%). For this to be legal I had to live outside of Switzerland and I did for 2 beautiful years in Costa Rica.
And then back to Switzerland.
What if shit happened and you had to get a job back then ?
(Hopefully it didn’t)
Switzerland is for dividends cheaper tax-wise than Costa Rica which is (or was) tax free. The reason is that there is no double tax treaty with the USA so you pay double withholding tax. Today you pay double withholding tax and an expat tax in Costa Rica, so not much left of the dividends…
And no, of course FIREd means my fuck-off day was in 2014 and I did not work for a salary a single day since then.
I’m just wondering what happens, pillar 2-wise, if we follow a plan like this one at 50-something, things go south financially (divorce, bad choice, bad luck, life…) and you’re back at 55 begging for a job and a salary at any employer (and you get one).
You continue completely off topic, but:
We were born with nothing and we leave with nothing. The time in between we worry way too much.
I had nothing with 18, always at least one week of work without a single penny in my pocket. So yes, I am used to it. Probably I would live better from welfare in Switzerland today than I lived with 18 years working poor. Can still happen because I take big risks sometimes. But the real estate gives some comfort…
Sorry, this was absolutely not personal or judging, it might have not sounded the way I wanted to ask.
I was just asking about regulation and laws in that case, factual stuff, I’m curious. Because one cannot predict the future and Switzerland won’t prevent you from working if you need to.
Off topic, certainly. (Discussion moved so I guess it is now on topic, will read the thread). Thanks.
Better simply to move to a country where it is taxed at 0%.
I second this. Not declaring when you are legally required to should not be considered an option.
The question is based on the assumption that the assets withdrawn from pension benefits will not be invested. But unless a person simply blows the money or invests very poorly, it is perfectly possible for those assets to yield returns equal to or greater than a pension.
In the case of a divorce the benefits would be split/balanced anyway, so there’s no real difference between pension benefits and other wealth in that regard.
I’m sure there are a fair number of people who do lose the withdrawn money, especially in the case of those who withdraw early on the basis of self-employment. But a person who does that is, by default, accepting the risk of losing the money and having to work to re-accumulate those assets.
I was more asking what happens if you leave for good, withdraw, then whatever happens, you come back (so you have not left for good but you did not know at that time), and work again, in Switzerland (so you didn’t fired but you did not plan that initially).
I was talking about divorce and stuff just to explain there could be good reasons your situation does not evolve as planned and FIRE extinguishes.
You start accumulating your pension fund from zero.
Well, ok, would not expect to get a bonus on my restarting career pension and start anywhere above 0, but I would also have my previous withdrawal available as free asset, and/or I could buy in the new one… sorry it looks sketchy to me from a tax perspective 
I guess it is not so different when someone abroad moves to Switzerland and starts from zero with pension.