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Anonymous Zebra posted:So I posted this tax question in another thread, but figured I'd drop the turd here too. Your tax guy is right. I did that my first year here, which was cool because it was 8/12ths of a year (or 3/4ths for you mathematics people out there). Unless law has changed since 2009, which it I guess is conceivable due to all the other new nonsense with the Lex Luthor America Laws and whatever else with the banks.
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Feb 26, 2014 09:31
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| # ? May 13, 2024 11:47 |
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http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/Chaotic_US_tax_stampede_overwhelms_specialists.html?cid=38035476 Article on how being a US tax advisor in Switzerland is now big business. Sucks to be a US citizen. In other news, my contract is just about to finish (thankfully, dull job) and I started looking around for new work, something that over the last 8 years has never been a problem. The first head-hunter I contacted and have known for a long time, has already told me that many Swiss firms are now starting to prioritise Swiss citizens over other nationalities. I hope that isn't the case but if so then that seriously affects foreign nationals ability to change jobs.
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Feb 27, 2014 10:43
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So I'm resurrecting this thread for another money question. Have any Americans in Switzerland figured out how you are supposed to invest for retirement? Back in the US my wife and I simply put money into Roth IRAs, but that's obviously no longer possible since we no longer make a taxable US income. However, the company we invest with also won't be accepting money from us much longer since they refuse to do business with people who do not have a US residence. So we can't even move our savings into taxable investment funds. On the Swiss side, apparently the banks here refuse to allow Americans to use the 3rd pillar investment accounts (3a or 3b). I even went as far as attending a seminar put on by ETH where they explained the 3 pillars in detail and how to use them (mostly explaining to all the Indian dudes that the accounts will make them far more money than buying tons of gold...) and then at the very end the guy actually stopped to mention that none of this applied to Americans and everyone laughed because I guess I was the only American in the room. So in a short while I'm not going to be able to move the money I make here into an investment account and it's just going to sit in savings being lovely. Things are looking great here right now and my wife and I do not see ourselves leaving in foreseeable future, so what are our options? Edit: Asking this question on Swiss English Forum gets a hilarious mixture of "buy gold" and "become stateless", with a small pinch of "buy Bitcoins" for flavouring. Anonymous Zebra fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Jun 27, 2014 16:32
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I am not a foreigner so I'm not 100% sure this applies to you but: There is also the system of investing more money in the 2nd pillar (Freiwilliger Einkauf in die Pensionskasse). This is only allowed as far as it patches up holes in your retirement coverage resulting from past noninvestment (usually from periods of unemployment), but since you suddenly showed up in Switzerland at an age probably over 30 you might qualify. Such investments give you the same return as other 2/3 pillar accounts. Did the guy in that seminar really not offer an alternative? There must be enough Americans at ETH to have that question pop up occasionally...
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Jun 28, 2014 11:58
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I'm an American who's been here for years, though haven't personally looked into the retirement packages at all. On the other hand I do know that asking Englishforum Swizterland will get you responses about on par with asking FYAD.
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Jun 28, 2014 15:22
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I'm moving to Switzerland in September (Winterthur) and would the "3rd pillar" be similar to a ISA or other investment account? When I got the "Living in Switzerland" talk from the HR dept two pension two pension contributions were discussed; the state pension (~5% salary), company pension (8% + 12% company match) with additional voluntary contributions on top if you want.
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Jul 5, 2014 21:09
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What websites do people recommend for advertising if you want to rent out a flat? I'm moving out at the end of August and need to find a replacement renter. Wgzimmer.ch is free but seems to be more for individual rooms (and maximum listable price is 1500/month), Homegate is much more appropriate but costs over 120 CHF to post an ad, and any other websites seem relatively obscure. The flat is in downtown Zurich, if that makes a difference.
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Jul 31, 2014 23:37
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I'm phone posting from abroad so I haven't checked these sites lately but glocals.ch has a pretty active housing want ads section and I think WRS (world radio Switzerland) has classifieds too. Happy 1st of August!
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Aug 1, 2014 05:57
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There's homegate.ch, nzzdomizil.ch and immoscout24.ch All of them charge prices like they still had to print magazines with color photos with that money  You only have a month though so you probably want to spend that money, if you end up having to pay a month of rent for an empty apartment it'd suck more. If you had more time you could try putting free/lowcost papers at libraries or Migros. Only buy an ad on a single of those sites though, for a Zurich apartment you're bound to get like a dozen phone calls the first day. BigFatFlyingBloke posted:I'm moving to Switzerland in September (Winterthur) and would the "3rd pillar" be similar to a ISA or other investment account? When I got the "Living in Switzerland" talk from the HR dept two pension two pension contributions were discussed; the state pension (~5% salary), company pension (8% + 12% company match) with additional voluntary contributions on top if you want. state pension is the 1st pillar, the company pension the 2nd. On top of those two, you can pay up to 6700 CHF a year into a private account (bank of your choice) that will receive the same preferential tax and interest as the mandatory retirement accounts. peak debt fucked around with this message at 13:05 on Aug 1, 2014 |
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Aug 1, 2014 13:01
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| # ? May 13, 2024 11:47 |
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http://www.englishforum.ch/finance-banking-taxation/46251-swiss-pensions-consolidated-summary.html This is actually a decent summary of Swiss pensions, don't read much further than the OP though. Paying 3rd pillar is up to you. If you are on Quellensteuer (i.e. you don't have a C permit or earn over 120k a year) you probably aren't that interested in contributing to your 3rd pillar.
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Aug 7, 2014 11:24
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