Wealth tax - Does it include cash in a bank account?

[dbu]

@Cortana

Would you rather get taxed on capital gains like the rest of the world? I wouldn’t and that’s why I like the system in Switzerland.

Doesn’t (most of that) rest of the world get CGT exemption if asset is held for n years (e.g. 2-3) before selling?
That would likely have 0 impact on ETF buy’n’hodlers.

[Jagermeister]

Yes. Let me be clear: I generally don’t have any complaint regarding Switzerland. I found almost all they do is super fair. Forcing people to acquire financial knowledgment and/or deposit trust on companies or institutions at the cost of an economic penalty I see it as (yet another) intromission of the government into citizens private life. Not good. In my particular case I can tell you why I don’t want to put that money “to work” (keep in mind the bank is already doing it btw, they run a business. The money is not stall for sure.). Wherever I put the money now, if I need it in the next 2-3 years I am going to incur in a heavy risk. Imagine I buy now SP500 indexed ETFS and they go down and I need to sell them. Locked. Imagine I buy 5 year bonds or whatever and I need to sell it. Locked. Just let people live and do whatever they want with their legal, hard earned money. I totally get your point but that’s how I see it. Always feel raped when the govt./state gets its nose into my private things.

[Julianek]

@Jagermeister

As much as I understand the logic you state, I do not agree with it. The money is ALREADY in productive use. Or you think the bank has 100% of my cash in liquid stored in a safe box? They earn money with our money.

And yes @Cortana it is theft. Because it is a double tax. All that money already paid taxes. The fact that they do it and it is legal it doesn’t mean it is fair. This is exactly the same as if my son inherits the house when I die. Every single cent of the money I paid for the house was legal, I paid the taxes when I bought it, I paid the taxes while having it. Why does he have to pay again? It might be how the law is, it doesn’t mean it is fair.

But… hey! This is more of a philosophical discussion haha. Want to say that thank you everyone for your comments, really appreciate them. Made me learn a lot in just 2 days.

@Cortana, @Julianek it is not a crime, for god’s sake. I am even unsure if “illegal” is the term to use. Thanks to CHRad comments, I spent a few hours yesterday reading about this. And what I found was that in Switzerland what he proposes and adapted to my case, not only IT IS NOT tax fraud, it is not even tax evasion (which is an administrative offense, so not a crime). Simply not doing a tax declaration is another category that is punished with a max of 1000 CHF. Which in my case, it is probably cheaper than : paying the wealth tax (double tax) and the time spent on : finding a treuhand, paying him, collecting all the data, phones/emails with the tax bureau, etc. And even I risk the tax declaration is negative so I end up paying more taxes. It is absolutely stupid, really.

Ok we’ll stop the thread here.

• You asked if you have to declare your bank accounts in your tax declaration. Yes, you have to. Not doing so is punishable by law, as you confirmed in your message.
• I don’t care if you think this is fair or not. The tax system is what it is in Switzerland. You could be the reincarnation of Ayn Rand or Karl Marx, it is not going to change. I even higlighted in the moderation policy that this kind of discussion is not helpful and highly discouraged.
• You are welcome to do anything you want in your private life, if you are willing to bear the consequences. But advocating for an illegal behavior on a public forum is a completely different animal:
  • Legal repercussions could close the forum
  • and personally, as a moderator i have absolutely no desire to bear any liability because of what you are advocating for.

So we’ll stop there. You got the answer you were looking for. No need for any additional drama.