I don’t get why they calculate that taxes are due on the 30.9 of the taxed year. They always have to add 90 days of interests.
Actually I’m not even sure of what I read. The Interests page is confusing.
From when you prepay to 30.9 interests are for you. From 30.9 until when you get the 35% back is theirs, and from that date to when they know if you owe them or not it depends.
Yes it’s stupid.
However:
In ZH the interest you pay until end of the year is 1%. And I get 1% interest with Yuh.
So I still pay at the end of the year.
Rather have that money in my account until then. But many handle it differently…
If I am not wrong, its 4.5% p.a. and not 1%.
1% is - pls correct me - for adjustments/corrections.
Depends on cantons (same for the 30.9 deadline).
@ma0 I assume it’s to let people have flexibility while having incentives to pay taxes regularly all along the year (paying monthly still gives you positive interests overall)
My understanding of the ZH tax puzzle (of course I only moved there last year):
+1% p.a. interest on everything you pay them voluntarily till 30.9.
-1% p.a. interest on everything short of the definitive tax bill after 30.9.
-4.5% p.a. on everything that you owe after the due date of the definitive tax bill.
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Sorry but I am strongly against this reasoning. While I am not a pro-government of any sorts, If I have to pick 1% to a private company or 1% to taxes, I’d give them to the government.
I might discuss if the amounts are different, but exactly the same?
It might have to do with estimating what date would make the required liquidity available to pay the state/city/federal bills (they have to borrow on the short term markets and pay interest themselves when it’s not).
It might be some legacy reason that only people knowledgeable in the specific arcanes of that specific tax office will know. Accounting deadline for the public entities I know is March 31st, September 30th is half of the accounting year (and also close to the date where budgets are done/finalised - if they know how much money is actually getting in through taxes, that can help better budgetting next year’s state/city income), it might have some accounting relevance.
I think you also get interest for money they you pay before 30 Sep. So I think this date is somehow to balance the interest that state owes you versus the interest that you owe the state.
Let’s say you pay your tax in equal instalments and ignore this date. So 12 equal instalments per month. Would there still be any interest?
It’s not at all about the decision between a bank and the goverment.
The only reason is that if I can choose to keep this money at my disposal for 3 months or not. And another big reason is to add the 13. salary to the taxes.
Also, what does it help the government to have the provisional taxes 3 month earlier? They get their 1% interest, if it would be too little, they would raise it.
Nothing to morally judge here 
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Yes, that’s what I wrote, if I computed correctly you get 20% of what you’d get if you pay everything on January 1st (equivalent to paying everything on 15th of July).
To be fair I’m not quite sure there’s much reasoning behind, except for giving a bit of incentives to pay early while still allowing a lot of flexibility.
Some cantons are much more prescriptive (e.g. you have to pay the preliminary bills during the year)
Yeah as long as people pay on time as they earn , all works out
It’s flexible enough system in ZH
Note that you pay taxes on that 1% from Yuh, so don’t forget to deduct the interest paid to the tax office on the next tax declaration. 
And btw, in SG the taxes are due on 31.07. And they expect you to pay three instalments on 31.05, 31.07 and 31.09, thus, the last instalment is already accruing negative interests… highly confusing.
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Great idea! I’m sure they will happily accept 
ZH suggests 3 installments as well. The last one due on the 31.12. well after the -1% threshold. It is indeed confusing.
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For once VD feels pretty logical. 12 instalments, monthly. And I believe the negative/positive interests start from the next month for the fraction due? Then definitive taxation due end of March, giving you time to gather all the required documents.
The 3 suggested installments in ZH are 30.6., 30.9. and 31.12 with equal amounts. In that case you would get exactly the same amount of interest for the early payment on 30.6. as you would have to pay for the ‘late’ payment on 31.12., so that seems like a reasonable suggestion to me. I.e., if you follow the suggestion, there is zero interest in the end - well, only if the provisional tax amount exactly matches the final tax amount.
And the provisional federal tax payment is due 31.3. (in the following year), with that you have one tax payment per quarter (+ corrections whenever the taxes have been processed).
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I am super confused about how this work (even after reading the replies).
In any case I want to add a question. I did pay the suggested ammount they sent me for 2024 (one payment). However, I realized that I am underpaying, probably around 4k, and to avoid to pay interest, I would like to close the gap.
Can I just pay extra with the pay slip?
does anyone do that?
Sorry I am reading the german papers left and right and it is not clear at all for me if you can just pay any quantity at will (maybe because my poor german).
Yes you can make extra payment
Normally with payment slips , there is a slip without any specific amount and that one can be used to make payments on top of requested
I do it all the time
If there is none, then you can order payment slips from Gemeinde
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@kart0ffel
If you live in City ZH, you can simply open an account at Mein Konto and in Steuer section there would be an option to show you the IBAN to make payments. This option is only valid for Kantonal taxes though.
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Thank you! both answers so useful, thats why this forum rocks.