10 March 2011

The (Swiss) Taxman

The deadline for our Swiss tax return is March 31, and I'm not ready.

Luckily we live in Zurich, and we can file for an extension (Fristerstreckung) online. We just need the PID and code from the front of our tax return form (Steuererklärung), which we've already received in the mail. The Steueramt ("tax bureau")  has even helpfully circled the correct numbers on the online form, so that we can easily find the corresponding numbers on our paper tax return form.

I just entered the numbers and clicked "Send" (Abschicken). The next page gave me a choice of two extension dates (September 30 and November 30). I selected a date, continued, and immediately got a page that confirmed our filing deadline had been extended until November 30 (of course I picked the later date). I also printed the confirmation (as the site advised).

Now that I've filed for an extension, I have plenty of time to find a tax adviser. Or I might to try to figure out how to use the tax software that's also available from the city. The city provides tax software (for free!) as a CD for Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems. (It doesn't say which versions, however.) You can also download the program from the website. I've been told it's challenging the first time through, but the process is much easier the next time around.

By the way, as I understand it, the extension is just a filing extension. If you owe money, that's still due by the deadline.

One last note: This post in no way constitutes tax or legal advice!



Story by Kathy 
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Posted by Kathy on 10.3.11

8 comments:

  1. It's Kanton-dependent, but I've been using VaudTax for quite some time now and yes it makes things much much faster as you can "recycle" the previous year's data. If you have all your documents ready, it's matter of 20 minutes.

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  2. Hi M'dame Jo,

    I think that's basically the same here. Once you load all your data, you get to use it again.

    Kathy

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  3. Nothing is certain but death and taxes

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  4. I just hate finally two sets of taxes or make it more than that if you want to be technical about filing for the US.

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  5. Hi Kae Lani, I tried to come up with a punny headline with this but failed ;-)

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  6. Hi ET,
    You're right. I thought filing in 2 countries was tough. 3 countries. Eeek.

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  7. Hi, Kathy. Tony's photos of Venice are poetry. He's a fantastic photographer.

    Two tax returns--what fun! It's a price to pay, but you do get benefits like going to Venice for your anniversary.

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  8. Thanks, Tutoring. You're right. We get some great benefits by living in Switzerland.

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