Hi everyone,
I’m hoping someone here might have experience with Swiss taxes and can give me some advice.
I recently received a letter asking me to pay CHF 4,500 in taxes for the year 2023, which really shocked me. The confusing part is that:
• I no longer live in Switzerland and have been officially deregistered since July 2025
• The letter arrived very late, long after the year 2023
• I was employed by a large, well-established company in Zurich
• Every month I received a payslip clearly showing gross salary, deductions, and net salary
• My understanding was that all taxes were properly deducted at source (Quellensteuer) by my employer
Because of this, I don’t understand how I could suddenly owe such a large amount.
A few days ago, I submitted a written objection directly to the tax office. When I spoke to an employee there, he told me:
• He doesn’t know when I’ll get an answer
• The payment deadline is one month
• I should pay first, and if my objection is accepted, the money would be refunded later
Honestly, I’m quite worried. CHF 4,500 is a lot of money, and I’m afraid that if I pay now, the process could drag on for months (or longer), and I might never see the money again — especially since I genuinely believe this amount is incorrect.
I only lived in Switzerland for a few years, so I’m not fully familiar with the tax system here.
Has anyone experienced something similar, especially after leaving Switzerland?
Is it really normal to pay first and sort it out later?
Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much!
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1pw18as
Posted by moulaga77
31 Comments
Hehe. You will also get the Tax Bill for 2024 since you left only this year in 2025.
Pic 1 tells you everything you need to know. And yes, you have to pay taxes in Switzerland like everywhere else.
My assumption but not legal advice
If you worked in 2023 you have to pay income taxes for that year. The deductions were for AHV, BVG and accident insurance
you didnt submit your tax declaration for 2023, so they estimated your income instead. that always comes with a premium.
youll also receive a tax bill for 2024
Just commenting to give your post some visibility… hope someone can help you. But if you never got to the point of getting the C permit, I don’t see how can they double tax you. Better to get in contact with the Tax Office. Again, I’m not that long here so I don’t understand the system that well yet.
Looks like you are on Quellensteuern. Did you request a “Nachträgliche ordentliche Veranlagung” in 2024 (or any earlier)? If you did not, this looks very strange
Honestly not sure about the pay first / pay later. If you can I would go directly to the office with your Salary certificate for the year 2023 and let them sort it out.
Did you ever file taxes while living in Switzerland? This is not mandatory under B permit (except if you do it once you have to always do it for subsequent years or if you earn or have Vermögen above a certain threshold (the above is below it)). The quellensteuer already paid was properly accounted for (2.5k paid in first line on second picture). I am wondering if you maybe submitted a tax file in 2022 or before and therefore were required to filed one for 2023, didnt and then now you get the final tax bill for 2023 without much deduction since you dodnt file them yourself.
Did you file a tax return? Because the bill states that it is based on the filed tax return.
Often source tax is not enough to cover all of the tax liability, especially since the city has a high tax rate. Therefore you have an outstanding amount.
Super stupid question but how did you receive the letter? Your say you are deregistered? I am honestly not sure they can make you pay the bill, so maybe don‘t – at least until you figures out if it is right.
Edit: quite normal to receive a bill this late. There is a bit of a backlog apparently..😅
It looks like you lived also in Switzerland, right?
Denn you need to fillout the tax-report and send it to the government tax office. What you see on the loan-bill it’s an assumption and pre-cashing.
After the final tax calculation you‘ll receive a paper like that with either a Tax „Guthaben“ or „Schuld“.
Get a tax-office and let them do it for you. Cost about 200 Franks per year but it’s worth.
DM me for more info.
Call… them?
They are usally very nice and helpful.
Would be useful if you declared your situation like zipcode, marital status and age. IMO it’s very strange that the paid tax at source is so different from the actual tax calculated by authorities.
> My understanding was that all taxes were properly deducted at source (Quellensteuer) by my employer
1.) That’s not how it works in Switzerland. You have to pay individual tax.
2.) Why the tax bill only shows up now is a bit odd. When did you file the 2023 tax return?
3.) From when until when did you live in Switzerland? How much did you earn each year and did you fike a tax return?
4.) You left Switzerland this year. Unless you had a vastly different employment situation in 2024, you’ll likely also receive a bill there.
5.) Did you file your 2024 tax return? (Should’ve been done in 2025.)
Did you have a Quellensteuer deduction?
If you earn more than (I think) 120’k/y you still have to file a Steuererklärung. It looks like you did not and they assumed an amount (Einschätzung).
I would call them and see whats up – tell them you didn’t know and ask polity if they might still let you file. The rate in this case is higher (Einschätzung) and you could save a lot – had a similar situation in the past and it was almost 50% lower.
Just in case: This is for 2023 – if you left in July’25 you might still need to file for 2024 and 2025. Ask them about that as well if you already call.
No tax pro here but it seems you thought tax was covered by your employer. That’s false. Every swiss citizen has to pay tax according to how much they made, their wealth, everything. They take some time to come so I wouldn’t be surprised if one from 2024 is gonna show up too. Just pay it, you’re not getting scammed, just fullfilling all your financial obligations to your old country 🙂
Nice of you to include the QR code, but I’m afraid I’m not gonna pay that tax bill for you.
Is it possible, that in 2023 your salary developed from BELOW 120K CHF to ABOVE 120k…??
Because if so, this would explain a lot.
“Is it really normal to pay first and sort it out later?”
This has been normal in all countries I have lived. First you have a tax estimate, and all the payments you do, including source tax, is actually just an estimate. Then later you file your taxes, the tax office calculates the final amount, and you get a refund or additional invoice. In Switzerland the tax office agas 5 years deadline to provide final calculation and invoice, which means you might get your invoice from 2025 as late as 2030.
From what I read you, had Quellensteuer.
So did you have work Permit B?
Did you earn under CHF 120k or over?
Contact also you’re companies HR, since they were in charge to ensure they submit everything correctly.
Honestly, the tax office is not your enemy. Call them again and ask specifically what papers and data they‘ve used to come to this sum. Ask them about their assessment of the situation.
You may even be able to ask copies of the files, but I‘m not sure.
It seems that you have not been paying taxes to your Gemeinde. I‘d check how this could have happened.
And yes, you‘ll likely be going through something similar for 2024 and half of 2025. So, I‘d actually deal with this at the same time and discuss also these periods with the tax office.
You paid Fr. 2593.40 direct over your employer (Quellensteuer). But it looks like this was way to less.
It looks like you have filled out a tax form. Hopefully for 24 too. Normaly when you officially leave you should also have done this for 25 until you left.
Zurich is behind a few years with the taxes. Talk to them again. You have to take action now. And you will also have to pay for 24 and 25.
Well, the tax at source that was deducted from your salary (2593.40 for a whole year) is way too little to be correct. Did you maybe switch to C permit some time in 2023?
[see chapter 3 Merkblatt zur Quellensteuer, enjoy](https://www.zh.ch/de/steuern-finanzen/steuern/treuhaender/steuerbuch/steuerbuch-definition/zstb-87-3.html)
You will receive Swiss tax bills after your own desmise. Get used to it
Just because you leave before pay your taxes, doesn’t mean you’re not going to betaxed my advice, but to pay it because the next time you land in Switzerland, they will hang a few put you in jail till you pay in cash and lost bond is valid for 30 years
About the fear of losing the money if the bill is incorrect. If the bill is really incorrect, there shouldn’t be a problem to get the money back. And you will probably get interest too. Therefore I would pay the bill.
it’s like that almost everywhere in the world – you’re taxed at source through your employer, but the final amount is determined afterwards.
When you file your tax return, at the end you usually see how much you have to pay in total. If less than that has been taken at source, you will receive a bill for the remainder. If the tax office disagrees with your filing, they may also charge a different amount.
What part of the calculation do you disagree with? This does not look unreasonably high to me?
OP you will also have to file a departure tax return for 2025 (part-year resident) if I’m not mistaken.
Look into this and pay your taxes. Don’t tax evade like some are suggesting, this will bite you in the ass.
Hey
My friend works there. If you exceed a certain amount earned or have a certain amount of wealth, you need to pay taxes on top of souce tax. Just make an email (you can find it online) ask for a few more days to pay and the reason you are paying taxes (being NOV – nachträglich ordentlich veranlagt). They will answer you email within a few days.
Also if you submitted the tax declaration once for having a bigger amount to deduct from you income, you‘ll have to do it every subsequent year (you can‘t stop doing it once you started).
Pro tip: If you don‘t come back to Switzerland, you can just not pay it. There is nothing they can do to get the money from you abroad. However, if you want to come back later, you should pay it.
This shows that the system is really working against foreigner with lower incomes.
Of course you could argue that they should have informed themselves. But who would expect their tax bill to triple from just filing the truthful tax return?
I’m swiss but when I left Switzerland to live abroad my Gemeinde didn’t let me do the Abmeldung unless I paid my taxes immediately. I had to pay around 6k with my debit card.
Well, the calculation is pretty transparent:
– It has been determined that you owe 7318 .- in taxes
– You have only paid 2593 .- through taxation at source
– Now they want to collect the difference
The 7318 .- they want from you is pretty much exactly the “correct” amount for your taxable income of 66500 according to Zurichs tax calculator (when using normal rates).
So there seems to be nothing wrong about the amount per se.
The more interesting question is, why you only paid such a low amount through taxation at source. Having paid only 2593 .- source tax would indicate a significantly lower taxable income than the 66k you apparently earned.
Did you have an additional income that was not taxed at source? Is there a chance that for some reason your employer didn’t deduct source tax for your whole salary?