GE starts out somewhat more slowly than VD but the marginal tax rate is above 0.9% from CHF 1.5m. Glad we are in the lead for something 
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I suppose someone needs to make up for all those employees at the many international organizations in GE not paying income tax …
Thanks, @EPeon , for taking one for team, buddy!
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It would not be so bad if it was double tax. Problem is it’s a never-ending tax. You pay income tax on your earnings, and then whatever you save, you pay infinitely a tax on your savings every year. If you don’t invest, the state will have taken 100% of your earnings in a matter of 50 years (an exaggeration but…). In addition to no capital gains tax, this of course forces people to invest more aggressively.
The whole Swiss society is built for people to work (otherwise, no family allowance for the kids, no 2nd/3rd pillar contributions, however stock-based vested benefit funds can very high rate of returns, AVS needs to be paid etc). So I guess the solution is to work and save aggressively until the youngest kid is 14-16, then go on chomage for 2 years, and then leave the country!
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Yea I believe the purpose is to encourage people to invest wealth and not just keep it……
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Come on, if you are close to FIRE, you shouldn’t worry about wealth tax or 200-250 CHF family allowance per kid. With low income, you would still get the latter, with a higher one you don’t need it.
Nobody likes to pay taxes and most enjoy social benefits, but I wouldn’t let that determine my life-planning.
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There is the flat rate taxation (Pauschalbesteuerung) but else there is no “negotiating” between taxpayer and state. The threshhold begins at 150k owed taxes or more so I don’t think people on this forum (including me) see this as a possibility 
. 3 conditions to qualify for lump-sum taxation | Vontobel
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Check out the bouclier fiscal which applies in some cantons including Geneva and Vaud.
In Geneva cantonal and federal tax is capped to ~71.5% of your taxable income. This is regardless how much wealth you have. So there is a strategy and (even more) incentive to prioritise capital growth over dividends
I don’t know how it works in practise, not there yet 
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Thank you very much, this is very useful! Indeed, I try to avoid dividend/interest-paying investments, especially as you have to pay tax on dividends, but not on capital gains. I will absolutely study this point.
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It is not determining my life but it certainly is changing my calculations. I have only recently realised how much I am paying in wealth tax (the increase was gradual with my assets growth), and I never planned for it in my FIRE sheet. If I have to pay almost 1% of my assets every year in taxes, it does change the calculation, enough to have to shift retirement age by some years.
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Don’t forget to budget for AVS based on wealth if not working: 0.2-0.3% of net assets. There are a few threads on the forum
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I’m also in a high wealth tax canton. What I am considering:
- Put as much into Pillar 2 and Pillar 3
- Invest into Real Estate (has lower wealth tax basis)
- Consider moving to neighbouring canton upon withdrawal from Pillar 2 (much lower rates)
- Consider delaying Pillar 2 withdrawal by being employed
- Giving wealth to kids and charities on pillar 2 withdrawal. here the tax free limit is 75k, so I could give 150k in total to my kids.
- once kids are working, I can give them money to fill up their pillar 2 and 3a each year
- Buying qualifying Swiss REITs (with lower wealth tax basis)
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These articles are well written and give usable solutions IMO.
Part 2 has a good list of ways to reduce Wealth Tax, although it basically “only” confirms what has already been mentioned in this thread/forum. I’d recommend getting started by paying into your Pension Fund and buying RE funds with direct property ownership.
Es bestehen hauptsächlich fünf Möglichkeiten die Vermögenssteuer zu reduzieren:
Wohnsitznahme in einer steuergünstigen Gemeinde/einem steuergünstigen Kanton;
Investition in Immobilien (in- oder ausländische);
Investition in Anteile an kollektiven Kapitalanlagen mit direktem Grundbesitz;
Vorsorgesparen;
Investition in Wertschriften oder Gegenstände ohne Kurswert.
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Since I love contradicting myself … also, off topic, and trigger warning, probably unpopular opinion:
I get all (and sympathize with most) of these arguments about double taxation and getting taxed to zero if you stayed in cash, this working against FIRE plans or delaying them, etc, but …
… ever since me making and owning significant amounts of money - even 25 years ago when I earned a maybe just about average amount of money and had no wealth - I’ve felt like it’s fair that I pay a progressively higher amount of taxes in the society and the place I live in for a number of reasons, ranging from me benefitting from and enjoying what this society/place offers to me (and my family) to being aware that I am privileged for reasons due to luck, skill, whatever, but at the very least noticing that there are many people less privileged (most not out of choice, but because that was their only viable path) who I need to be here, like the person working in my grocery store filling up the shelves, making just barely enough to get by.
And I don’t even vote for the social party anymore (can’t stand them, in fact) … but I feel there needs to be some degree of solidarity from me with those less fortunate than me. Paying a progressive wealth tax seems like a very fine way to me to address that.
The tax system isn’t there to optimize your personal plans of FIREing. It’s there to make sure the Swiss and Switzerland works as a system, long term.
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Ok, that’s a different take. I answered to your previous post, specifically.
I agree these points need to be taken into account. You’ll find some comments in the forum that discuss it, but obviously it gets much more individual as you get older, more experienced (and hopefully wealthy) compared to, say, agreeing on saving money and go for a buy-and-hold investment strategy.
I didn’t read MP’s book, or even the blog for some time, but it should be clear that there’s no one size fits all solution and you need to check your own calculations.
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I live in the 2nd worst canton for wealth taxes. On retirement, I will pay 65% tax on income, and most of it will be wealth tax. This increases each year until it reaches 99% of my income by age 94.
This canton has no confiscatory tax rules (and from the case law I’ve seen, the tax payer hasn’t fared well when they have tried to challenge in cantons that do have such rules).
You do mean marginal tax, or?
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I was wondering about the same thing.
I think I was at ~40% marginal tax rate - on each additional earned Swiss Franc I would have to pay ~40 Rappen on income taxes (in Zurich), but maybe Zurich is just minor league with regards to this compared to @PhilMongoose 's canton.
Edit: Never mind: I am talking about pure income taxes, while @PhilMongoose seems to talk about an elaborate combination of income and wealth tax (?) that I personally can’t compute.
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Wealth tax are a burden but in the bigger picture a good thing. They substitue capital gains tax, and we should see them this way. US is not a benchmark given their rotten capitao gains tax step-up upon death.
I rathervpay wealth tax, thatvmotivates people to invest wealth… than paying capital gains tax.
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Not sure if anyone already mentioned that but let’s say you have 1mio wealth and 1mio mortgage for your house for example then your wealth tax should be 0 in theory.
Doesn’t your house value (or some high percentage of that) gets to be your ‘wealth’ then? Or am I missing something ?