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I'm quite sure Swiss taxes are lower than US taxes. A married person earning CHF 100,000 in Zurich with three kids will receive CHF 92,000 after tax and includi

by ttul 6y ago

I'm quite sure Swiss taxes are lower than US taxes. A married person earning CHF 100,000 in Zurich with three kids will receive CHF 92,000 after tax and including the "family allowances", or thereabouts. In Washington State, a married person making $100,000/yr will take home only $83,666.

madkat 6y ago
And we even get a cheap health insurance :D
TuringNYC 6y ago
Your numbers on Washington State seem off. I dont think you are including Social Security Taxes (7.65%) https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes#nyI48IDDLI https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes#nyI48IDDLI Also, Washington State is atypical for the US since they dont have a state income tax. In most other states, there is an added state income tax.
- murrayhenson 6y ago
  You could throw VAT/sales tax in there, too. In Switzerland it's absurdly low (for Europe) at 7.7%.
red_admiral 6y ago
Does that include mandatory health insurance though? That's effectively an extra ring-fenced tax. They're probably still lower than US taxes, but in Switzerland the difference between income after tax and actual take-home income can be significant.
rho4 6y ago
I'm Swiss, programming tax declaration and calculation software. Your example seems to take into account only the social security deduction. The ~92000 will indeed appear in your bank account, but at the end of the year you will have to pay income and wealth tax on that. Switzerland is one of a few countries where taxes are not automatically deducted from your salary (except for expats and some cornercases). You are responsible yourself to set aside a part of your salary because you will get a pretty hefty tax invoice after your tax declaration next year (big problem for some, as you can imagine). The 'tax return' concept doesn't exist here (again, with some exceptions).
- ht85 6y ago
  I think the 92k is correct for net income, breakdown would be something like: Gross salary: 100k Family allowance: ~300 x 3 x 12 = ~10.8k Salary deductions (unemployment, retirement, social insurances): ~11k Taxes: ~8k
  - rho4 6y ago
    This could be never ending. But I'd like to say that factors like tax rate progression (higher tax if you earn more), marital state, children and location (where you live in Switzerland) have a huge impact on the overall tax burden. So comparing 2 cities with very specific input variables will lead to very wrong conclusions when applying the results to make a statement about differences between two countries. Side note: Including the significant deductions for payments into your retirement fund seems problematic to me, as you will get that money back at some point. And then there are more factors that have a big impact, like church and wealth tax.

by ttul 6y ago

madkat 6y ago

And we even get a cheap health insurance :D

TuringNYC 6y ago

Your numbers on Washington State seem off. I dont think you are including Social Security Taxes (7.65%) https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes#nyI48IDDLI https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes#nyI48IDDLI Also, Washington State is atypical for the US since they dont have a state income tax. In most other states, there is an added state income tax.

murrayhenson 6y ago
You could throw VAT/sales tax in there, too. In Switzerland it's absurdly low (for Europe) at 7.7%.

red_admiral 6y ago

Does that include mandatory health insurance though? That's effectively an extra ring-fenced tax. They're probably still lower than US taxes, but in Switzerland the difference between income after tax and actual take-home income can be significant.

rho4 6y ago

I'm Swiss, programming tax declaration and calculation software. Your example seems to take into account only the social security deduction. The ~92000 will indeed appear in your bank account, but at the end of the year you will have to pay income and wealth tax on that. Switzerland is one of a few countries where taxes are not automatically deducted from your salary (except for expats and some cornercases). You are responsible yourself to set aside a part of your salary because you will get a pretty hefty tax invoice after your tax declaration next year (big problem for some, as you can imagine). The 'tax return' concept doesn't exist here (again, with some exceptions).

ht85 6y ago
I think the 92k is correct for net income, breakdown would be something like: Gross salary: 100k Family allowance: ~300 x 3 x 12 = ~10.8k Salary deductions (unemployment, retirement, social insurances): ~11k Taxes: ~8k
- rho4 6y ago
  This could be never ending. But I'd like to say that factors like tax rate progression (higher tax if you earn more), marital state, children and location (where you live in Switzerland) have a huge impact on the overall tax burden. So comparing 2 cities with very specific input variables will lead to very wrong conclusions when applying the results to make a statement about differences between two countries. Side note: Including the significant deductions for payments into your retirement fund seems problematic to me, as you will get that money back at some point. And then there are more factors that have a big impact, like church and wealth tax.