Tax arbitraging between cantons

“taxation arbitrage between Fribourg and Zug”

Hey, I am interested in knowing what came up about this discussion. I did quite some dig on that some months ago, even hired a tax consultant. I am living/working in Fribourg but as a remote worker, I wanted to go live in Zug. Thanks

2 Likes

Hey @japiden503 thanks for your post (and welcome to the forum!) , this thread might provide some answers :slight_smile: Working for a Swiss remote company - where should I live? - Taxes - Mustachian Post Community , feel free to ask your question there ! Cheers

ThePoorSwiss having come from Fribourg, we touched the topic of the various tax rates applicable in CH, but I don’t remember us going very much in-depth on that particular topic. But again we discussed so many subjects… Feel free to join us at the next meetup if you’d like discussing this aspect in more details :slight_smile:

Nothing specific except that Fribourg is very bad compared to Zug but not so bad compared to Vaud and Geneva.

I would divide my taxes by 3 if I moved to Zug.

4 Likes

And increased rent by 5?

3 Likes

I moved from FR to VD – on the same income – and my taxes went up a tad, don’t remember exact percentage. But then I moved from VD to ZG and my taxes fell by about 70% while earning 25% more. Used some of the difference to afford more living space – went from 98sqm living on in the fields to 155sqm for an extra 1k/month. However, we came to Zug on the tail end of when rental prices were still normal. In the past 5+ years it’s gone bonkers.

ps. next year will earn double as this year and my taxes will be almost on par with VD

1 Like

Obviously, taxes is not the only factor. But a division by 3 of my taxes is more significant than an increase in living costs by 5.

3 Likes

taxation should theoretically be linked to your center of life. meaning as you said above where you primarily live, have family, hobbies etc. problem is straight forward if you have kids that go to school in a certain canton.

3 Likes

rent is horrible in ZG if you come in using the expat community and services catered for them. there’s still some sane areas, but you most likely have to get in via a swiss connection.
that would be a completely different discussion though (lengthy and most likely political as well).

just as example, we went from 2.1k for 98sqm in VD to 2.9k for 155sqm in ZG. so it’s not really a factor of 5.

1 Like

You might want to consider SZ (“Ausserschwyz”, i.e. region Freienbach/Wollerau) instead of ZG. Taxes are even lower, and rents are lower compared to ZG.

1 Like