This is a tool that calculates the income tax and net income for the earned income, for a single person or married couple, over a specified tax year, in the Swiss (CH) centres of Zurich and Geneva, and displays the results in a table for each centre. Optionally, it is possible to include social insurance and/or mandatory pension contributions in the analysis. In which case, each results table also displays the calculated social insurance and/or mandatory pension contributions, with the net income reflecting these extra deductions. In the case of a married couple, the displayed results show the total gross income, and the income tax and net income resulting from the joint assessment.
Additionally, if required, the tool displays more detailed results from the tax calculation:
- A detailed results table is shown for the annual tax calculation for each Swiss centre, displaying the calculated tax at federal, cantonal and municipal levels, together with the total. This is either for your own income or, if you are married, your joint income.
- If social insurance contributions should be included in the comparison, a federal level social insurance contributions results table is shown, with a row for each relevant income: your own, your spouse's (if married) and the total (if married). Each row shows the calculated 1st Pillar social security contributions (e.g. old age and survivors insurance), the unemployment insurance contributions, the accident insurance contributions, and the total contributions.
- If mandatory pension contributions should be included in the comparison, an extra results table is shown, displaying the pension (2nd Pillar) contributions for each relevant income: your own, your spouse's (if married) and the total (if married).
- A results table is also shown for the annual federal tax calculation, displaying the gross income, the tax deductions, the taxable income, and the calculated tax. In more detail, the tax deductions include the standard tax allowances, the social insurance contributions (if applicable), the mandatory pension contributions (if applicable), and any extra deductions. This is either for your own income or, if you are married, your joint income.
- There is also a results table for the annual cantonal tax calculation for each Swiss centre, displaying the gross income, the tax deductions, the taxable income, and the calculated tax. In more detail, the tax deductions include the standard tax allowances, the social insurance contributions (if applicable), the mandatory pension contributions (if applicable), and any extra deductions. This is either for your own income or, if you are married, your joint income.
For the income tax calculations, it is necessary to supply the following compulsory information:
- Your gross earned income in monthly, weekly or annual terms.
- The tax year, noting that this runs from January to December in the same calendar year.
- Your date of birth, in the default format (DD/MM/YYYY), unless you change the format in the menu. To reduce the time needed for data entry, a default date of birth is provided. Since this currently has no effect on the tax calculations, the default only needs to be changed for display purposes.
- Your personal status, i.e. whether you are single or married.
- The number of dependent children. If this is greater than 0 and your personal status is single, the tool assumes that you are a single parent who provides sufficient support to the children to qualify for single parent tax tables, allowances etc.
- Whether social insurance contributions should be included in the comparison or not. Since social insurance contributions are deductible from gross income when calculating tax, including these contributions automatically results in a decrease in taxable income.
- Whether mandatory pension contributions should be included in the comparison or not. Since mandatory pension contributions are deductible from gross income when calculating tax, including these contributions automatically results in a decrease in taxable income.
If you are married, it is necessary to supply the following additional information:
- The gross earned income of your spouse in monthly, weekly or annual terms. If this field is left blank, the tool assumes that your spouse has no income.
The tool automatically includes certain tax deductions when determining the taxable income and thus calculating the income tax: the standard allowances which depend on your personal status (e.g. a married couple's allowance and an allowance if you are both working) and the number of children you have, as well as the deductions for social insurance and mandatory pension contributions. If there are any extra income tax deductions that should be taken into account, then supply the relevant parts of the following information:
- Any extra annual deduction for the federal tax calculation.
- Any extra annual deduction for the Zurich cantonal tax calculation.
- Any extra annual deduction for the Geneva cantonal tax calculation.
Various general points to note concerning the Swiss tax calculations are:
- Separate assessment of earned income is not possible for a married couple in Switzerland, so assessment is always joint.
- Income is taxed at federal, cantonal and municipal levels.
- Church taxes are not considered in this tool.
- The federal tax, which is applicable across the whole of Switzerland, is calculated using a dozen or so progressive tax rate bands.
The data used by this tool for the Swiss federal tax calculation was obtained primarily from the following sources:
The data used by this tool for the Swiss federal social insurance and mandatory pension contributions calculations was obtained primarily from the following sources:
Note: Need to find some more official sources for some data.
Various points to note concerning the Zurich cantonal and municipal tax calculations are:
- The cantonal tax is calculated using a dozen or so progressive tax rate bands.
- The municipal tax is calculated using a multiplier on the cantonal tax. This multiplier depends on the municipality. For this tool, the city of Zurich is assumed.
The data used by this tool for the Zurich tax calculations was obtained primarily from the following sources:
Various points to note concerning the Geneva cantonal and municipal tax calculations are:
- The calculation of the base cantonal tax changes in 2010. In 2009, the base cantonal tax is calculated from a single or married table with many different income tax points and then a rebate is calculated from the same table using an amount that is dependent on tax status (single or married, children etc.). In 2010, the base cantonal tax is calculated using a dozen or so progressive tax rate bands.
- In addition, for married couples, in 2009, the joint income is used to determine the tax point(s) in the married table, whereas in 2010, the joint income is halved, the tax is calculated using the same table as for singles, and then the tax is doubled.
- As an extra point, the 2009 base cantonal tax for an income that exceeds the table maximum is calculated by finding the final band tax percentage in the table and using that to calculate the extra tax. This is not completely accurate but a good approximation.
- Once the base cantonal tax has been calculated, there are various additional steps to calculate the actual cantonal tax: an additional amount using a multiplier, a reduction using a reduction percentage and an extra 1% added for l'aide à domicile.
- The municipal tax is calculated using a multiplier on the cantonal tax. This multiplier depends on the municipality. For this tool, the city of Geneva is assumed.
The data used by this tool for the Geneva tax calculations was obtained primarily from the following sources:
Associated tool link: http://www.coggit.com/tools/ch_income_tax_earned.html