From UK to Switzerland

[MaybeSwitzerland]

I have been offered a job in Switzerland (Lausanne / Vaud) - if I take it, it would mean a move for DH, 2 DDs 9 and 12, and dog.

I am bilingual, the kids and DH not so much (DD12 and DH have basic functioning french).

DH may not be able to work for a little while, and we would rely in my salary only while he looks (circa 200k CHF). I know the region well as a frequent tourist, but not so aware about taxes and life as a resident etc.

We would need to sell our detached house here in the UK, but i m also aware that Swiss people rent rather than buy, with appartment living much more common than here. I am freaking out that we d be giving up on a lovely set up here to go into a flat, with the added expense of international school (unless we decided to put the kids in the mainstream system?).

Has anyone done a similar move recently? how did it go? Employer is selling me the dream / the Swiss life as the best of Europe...

Perhaps he was making points for context. We have anibis.ch which is a bit like eBay.

But yes, I would agree with his point overall!

@PragmaticWench @WeAreTheHeroes
i have settled status - to come back to the UK without losing rights, i ll have to finish my citizenship application and pay the fee.

i don't think we need to see our UK home to fund the move per se, as I understand we would rent in CH, funded by salary. Renting it out our UK home is a good idea, which we will explore, although long term prospect would probably be to buy over the lake in France, where i have citizenship (we have about 60% equity in the house).

British DH post Brexit is the trickiest challenge to navigate...

British DH post brexit is certainly a challenge.... buying in France ... would that be to commute? There are lots of factors to consider before thinking about that.. not least that you would pay French taxes which are higher than Swiss taxes.

Your UK wealth and income will be taken into account when calculating your swiss taxes.. not to say that income will be taxes twice.. but there will be an impact.

The decision to buy / rent will also deserve careful consideration as the repayments on a mortgage are likely to be significantly cheaper than rent, though you do need a large deposit.. 25% .. but banks have been known to value properties at less than their market value so offer 75% of a lower value so buyers have to make up the difference.

However... it would make little sense to rush that decision as it's a pretty big one. People don't buy and sell here in the way they do in the UK.

no, that would not be to commute - it s not something that i could do / that appeals. So a house purchase would be for either rental or WE / hols / retirement usage.

interesting point about mortgages - something else to think about. I had not considered buying as an option. Are cash assets (e.g. from home sale proceeds) subject to tax in CH?

I think we ll need to find a financial adviser focusing specifically on UK to Vaud relocations - it might be useful

Yes.. it's worldwide assets.. but its not significant in terms of how much you pay..

taxsummaries.pwc.com/switzerland/individual/other-taxes

thanks for the info @ChateauMargaux!

I’m near Lausanne. It is great, go for it!

200k is good enough for a family of 5, renting a house or apt of 4k per month but you will struggle to pay for international / private school for all 3 children on that salary without employer support.

International school of Lausanne is closer to 35-40k per child per year in total.

If you are coming for 3+ years then I would go for the Swiss system.

It is not a country set up for 2 working parents so having your DH as a SAHD might be a good thing.

Best of luck!

Oh and wealth tax doesn’t make that much difference (unless you’re talking millions!) and there’s loads you can offset (eg interest mortgage).

Def not talking millions!!

we only have 2 DCs - i am trying to support their French a bit more than usual this summer - hoping we will have a breakthrough with the grandparents avoiding English as much as possible...