VIAC 3rd pillar withdrawal, coming back to CH later?

Taxes
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Does somebody know how legal this scheme is:

  1. On January I max out my 3rd pillar.
  2. In march I leave Switzerland and withdraw all my 3rd pillar contributions in cash.

Is it legal even if I spent very little time in CH this year?
What if I come back in CH in a couple of year? Is that an issue with the tax authorities?

How are you actually taxed when you leave the country? Are you taxed differently if you are a tax resident for half a year?

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Sounds reasonable. The tax authorities will also play by the rule and might tax you pro rata (e.g. for the first 3 months). Thus your reduction from 2021 pillar 3a contribution on income tax would be negligible.

Withdrawing it from abroad would expose you to tax at source from whatever canton your 3a provider is domiciled. Double tax treaty might help you recover the Swiss tax at source, while exposing you to foreign tax on pension capital. To do this, you would need to be a tax resident in the foreign country. And the profit is probably not worth your while, depending on which country you want to relocate to.

Coming back to Switzerland a few years later, you would have more wealth and pay corresponding taxes (negligible ‰). The tax authorities will not have an issue with it, I would think.

It does not sound like a fantastic game plan. Check my blog post about it: https://schweizer.pm/pri/2020/kapitalbezug-von-saeule-3a-im-ausland/

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Thanks Dom, that is good information. That confirms my thoughts.
Indeed it is not worth doing anything and will keep everything in VIAC and probably not invest next year.
In the country I might move to (PT) I think the taxation would be 10% with a special status.

Moving it out of VIAC before leaving is not really possible (I asked VIAC directly)… I have read somewhere that you need to move all the assets to another provider (in Schwyz for lowest taxes). This way it would be possible to withdraw everything just before leaving the country. Wouldn’t it be nice to unlock your 3a capital for almost no taxes?

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Take care, some banks/funds will take extra fees for just moving it to their institute and then taking it out (there is some grace period in most cases)

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Btw worth checking if it’s not better to leave it invested in CH. Since Viac/finpension are relatively low fee and allow ~100% equity. Would your investment in PT be actually better wrt tax and fees?

In many countries a pillar3 will be tax advantaged so will grow tax free. Just take it out when you actually need it (and I’d expect fees to get lower over time due to competition), if you’re not in Switzerland you can do it whenever you want.

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