Tax not deducted at source - why? Who benefits?

[WillSnow]

So now my wife has her Permis C, and I'll be getting mine later in the year, we're now in the world of not having tax deducted at source in our payslips.

Can @Baptiste Wicht or anyone explain .... why ... this is a thing, historically / culturally?

I just don't see who benefits? It's more faff for the person who now has to fret they've under or over paid until the end of the year, while manually using QR slips every month, surely it's worse for the tax office as less income coming in during the year ..... I just really fail to see the point?

What is it achieving?

We've been doing a tax return anyway since day 1 of being here due to UK property etc.

I just find it absolutely wild that tax is left to people to pay manually themselves.

The UK would be (even more) bankrupt if it was the norm over there!

 

[Baptiste Wicht]

Hi

I see it the other way around. Every Swiss person has to fill a tax declaration and pay manually. Foreigners coming into Switzerland are under a different system for a few possible reasons:
* They may not stay long enough to fill a tax declaration
* The government wants to make sure they get their taxes

And once you get a C Permit, you are treated like a Swiss citizen and so you are entailed to the same tax process (for better or worse )

As to why Swiss people pay taxes that way, I don't know. In many countries, you pay taxes first and then file your taxes and then you get a possible tax refund if you have paid too much.

 

[Max]

An excerpt from a topical article (2018):

The Federal Council almost systematically invokes the tradition and complexity of the Swiss tax system to justify it. The withholding tax would represent an excessive administrative burden for companies, but also for taxpayers and administrations, ‘especially if the workplace and place of residence are not in the same canton’, according to the government.

The link to individual freedom is another key element of the debate: ‘For a majority (...), levying withholding tax would mean telling citizens that they cannot organise themselves,’ said Hugues Hiltpold, a Liberal Democrat National Councillor who supports withholding tax.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)