Living in Switzerland without a C permit means your employer deducts withholding tax and, by default, you file nothing. This guide explains, in English, when the ordinary assessment becomes mandatory (CHF 120'000 of gross income), how to request it yourself by 31 March 2026 for the 2025 tax year, what changes with a C permit, which documents a first ordinary return asks for and what to keep if you leave Switzerland.
Updated on
Rules described for the 2025 tax year (requests and returns filed in 2026), read on estv.admin.ch, ge.ch and zh.ch on 3 September 2026; each canton applies them with its own forms and the threshold can change. This page informs: it replaces neither tax advice nor the instructions of your cantonal tax administration. Floxy is not a fiduciary or tax advisor, does not calculate withholding tax and files nothing on your behalf.
The Federal Tax Administration puts it in one sentence: people who live in Switzerland but do not yet hold a permanent residence permit are subject to withholding tax. Permanent residence means the C permit. So the rule covers the B permit, the L permit and any other residence permit, not only the B permit that gives this page its name. It also covers people who work in Switzerland without living here, such as cross-border commuters, who are not the subject of this guide.
There is one family exception, stated on the Zurich cantonal page on Quellensteuer: you leave the withholding regime if you are married to someone who holds a C permit or a Swiss passport. In that case the couple files an ordinary return together, like any Swiss household.
Taxed at source means your employer deducts the tax from every salary and pays it to the canton. You still receive a Lohnausweis (salary certificate) in January and a withholding tax statement; keep both, they are the two documents every later step starts from.
| Your situation | Regime | What you file |
|---|---|---|
| B or L permit, gross income under CHF 120'000, spouse neither Swiss nor C permit | Withholding tax | Nothing by default; NOV / TOU request by 31 March 2026 if you want deductions |
| B or L permit, gross income of CHF 120'000 or more (one spouse is enough) | Mandatory ordinary assessment | A full return every year; the announcement is filed once |
| B or L permit, married to a Swiss citizen or a C permit holder | Ordinary assessment | A full return every year, as a couple |
| C permit or Swiss passport | Ordinary assessment | A full return every year on the cantonal software |
The threshold is federal but the clearest public wording is cantonal. The Geneva tax administration writes that the subsequent ordinary assessment is mandatory when your gross annual income reaches CHF 120'000, and that for a married couple it is enough that one spouse reaches that amount (ge.ch, when to request or announce the TOU). The same page adds that the announcement is filed once: you do not repeat it every year.
Above the threshold you keep being taxed at source during the year, and the canton then assesses you on your worldwide income and wealth, crediting the withholding tax already paid. In practice you receive the cantonal forms and file like any resident: same deadlines, same software, same receipts. Cantons also switch a taxpayer to ordinary assessment in other cases set by federal law (income not covered by the withholding tax, for example); your cantonal tax office confirms which one applies to you.
Below CHF 120'000, filing is a choice. Withholding tax rates already include a flat allowance for the usual deductions; if your real deductions are higher (pillar 3a payments, childcare costs, commuting, training, high health premiums, debt interest), you can ask your canton to assess you on your actual figures. The Federal Tax Administration describes the procedure: file a request for subsequent ordinary assessment with the tax administration of your canton of residence by 31 March of the year following the one in which the salary was paid. For the 2025 tax year that is 31 March 2026.
Two consequences are worth knowing before you sign. First, the request covers all your income and wealth, in Switzerland and abroad, not only the deductions you had in mind. Second, once assessed, the canton sends you the ordinary forms in the following years for as long as you remain taxed at source, so the choice is not a one-off. The FR and DE guides on impôt à la source and Quellensteuer cover the same procedure in the languages of the forms.
The date itself is the point people miss. The Federal Tax Administration states that 31 March is a forfeiture deadline, not extendable: a request received on 1 April is not examined. There is no fee-based extension as there is for the ordinary return in Geneva or Zurich.
Once you hold a C permit you leave the withholding regime and enter ordinary assessment: your employer stops deducting tax, you pay provisional instalments to the canton and you file a full return once a year. The exact month of the switch is set by your cantonal tax office, which confirms it in writing. The deadline is the cantonal one, not 31 March everywhere: 15 March 2026 in Vaud and Bern, 31 March 2026 in Zurich, Geneva, Basel-Stadt and Valais, 30 April 2026 in Zug and Ticino, all read on the cantonal pages on 3 September 2026, and extendable through each canton's own procedure.
The software is cantonal too, and mostly not in English: ZHprivateTax in Zurich (read the Zurich guide in English), GeTax in Geneva (read the Geneva guide in English), VaudTax in Vaud. The year of the switch is the one to prepare with care: the canton assesses the months before and after the permit change under two regimes, and the two statements from your employer (withholding statement and Lohnausweis) must both be at hand.
Whether the ordinary assessment is mandatory, requested or comes with the C permit, the first full return asks for documents that a person taxed at source has often never kept. The list below is the one the cantonal forms follow; the Swiss tax guide in English details the ceilings of eight cantons.
Withholding tax does not end your obligations on the day you hand in your permit. The 31 March rule still applies to your last year: if you want a subsequent ordinary assessment for the year of departure, the request is due by 31 March of the following year, from abroad, and the same forfeiture rule applies. A mandatory assessment that was already running is completed by the canton after you leave.
Keep, in a folder you can open from anywhere: every Lohnausweis and withholding statement, the pillar 3a and pension fund exit statements, your last cantonal assessment and the proof of your departure date registered with the commune. Cantons and the Federal Tax Administration can ask for them years later, and your new country of residence may ask for the Swiss assessment to avoid double taxation.
The words you will meet on the forms and on the cantonal pages, in German, French and Italian, with the English meaning used on this page.
The procedure described by the Federal Tax Administration, with the cantonal step where it belongs. The request goes to your canton of residence, on its form, by 31 March 2026.
Check that you are taxed at source
Your payslip shows a withholding tax line (Quellensteuer, impôt à la source) and you hold a B, L or other non-C permit, with no Swiss or C permit spouse. If your 2025 gross income reached CHF 120'000, the assessment is mandatory: announce it once to the canton instead of requesting it.
Estimate whether an ordinary assessment is worth it
List the deductions you can document for 2025: pillar 3a, childcare, commuting, training, health premiums, debt interest. The request applies to all your income and wealth, in Switzerland and abroad, and the canton keeps sending the forms in the following years while you remain taxed at source.
Find your canton's request form
Each cantonal tax administration publishes its own NOV / TOU form or online request; Geneva's is on ge.ch, Zurich's on zh.ch. The request is addressed to the canton where you lived on 31 December 2025.
Send the request by 31 March 2026
A forfeiture deadline according to the Federal Tax Administration: no extension, no late acceptance. Keep the proof of sending (postal receipt or online confirmation).
Fill in the full return when the canton sends it
Declare worldwide income and wealth with the receipts gathered above; the withholding tax already deducted is credited against the ordinary tax. The cantonal deadline for that return is the one printed on the forms.
Both employer documents of a B permit year land in the same 2025 folder, read by the AI and named in English, so the NOV / TOU request and the return that follows start from complete paperwork instead of a search through emails.
The January certificate is classified under retirement savings for the 2025 tax year with the federal ceiling of CHF 7'258 applied, the deduction a person taxed at source only obtains through the subsequent ordinary assessment.
The forfeiture deadline of the Federal Tax Administration is shown with what is still missing for your request, weeks ahead, so a B permit holder does not discover the date on 1 April when the canton can no longer examine the request.
One PDF per deduction with the totals summed, in the order of the cantonal return; you copy the figures into the NOV / TOU forms of Zurich, Geneva or Vaud, or hand the folder to the professional who files your first ordinary assessment.
Floxy prepares the folder; the request and the return go to your cantonal tax administration. The pages this guide was read against, in the language of the source:
Not by default. With a B permit (or an L permit) and no Swiss or C permit spouse, your employer deducts withholding tax and the canton asks for nothing. Filing becomes mandatory from CHF 120'000 of gross annual income (ge.ch, read 3 September 2026). Below that, you may request a subsequent ordinary assessment by 31 March 2026 for the 2025 tax year if your deductions justify it.
Quellensteuer is the German word for withholding tax, impôt à la source in French, imposta alla fonte in Italian. It is the tax your employer takes from each salary when you live in Switzerland without a C permit. The rate already includes a flat allowance for the usual deductions; a subsequent ordinary assessment (NOV / TOU) replaces that allowance with your actual figures.
Send the request to the tax administration of the canton where you lived on 31 December 2025, on its own form or online service, by 31 March 2026. The Federal Tax Administration describes the procedure; each canton publishes the form (Geneva on ge.ch, Zurich on zh.ch). The canton then sends you the full 2025 return, and the ordinary forms again in the following years while you remain taxed at source.
No. The Federal Tax Administration states that the 31 March request deadline for the subsequent ordinary assessment is a forfeiture deadline: a late request is not examined. This is different from the ordinary return, whose cantonal deadline can be extended (for a fee in Geneva, through the commune in Zurich). If 31 March 2026 has passed for the 2025 tax year, the withholding tax stands.
No. The C permit is the permanent residence permit, and the Federal Tax Administration limits withholding tax to residents who do not yet hold it. Once it is granted your employer stops deducting tax, you pay provisional instalments and file a full return each year by the cantonal deadline, 31 March 2026 in Zurich or Geneva for the 2025 tax year. Your cantonal tax office confirms the month the switch takes effect.
Only through a subsequent ordinary assessment. The withholding rate does not know about your 3a payments; the NOV / TOU request filed by 31 March 2026 lets the canton assess your 2025 income with the real deduction, up to the federal ceiling of CHF 7'258 with a pension fund. Keep the 3a certificate the bank or insurer sends in January: it is the receipt the canton asks for.
Not necessarily. A first NOV / TOU with one employer, a rented flat and a pillar 3a account fits on the cantonal form, in German, French or Italian, once the 2025 receipts are gathered. Foreign property, income from abroad, the year you switch from withholding to a C permit or a departure from Switzerland are the situations where a professional earns the fee. The 31 March 2026 request date does not move either way.
No. Floxy neither calculates withholding tax rates nor sends anything to a cantonal administration. It keeps the documents of a person taxed at source in one 2025 tax folder (Lohnausweis, withholding statement, pillar 3a certificate, childcare invoices), reminds you of the 31 March 2026 request date and exports the receipts sorted by deduction. The request and the return are yours to file with the canton.
Written by the Floxy.ch team in Orsières. Figures checked against the official sources cited on this page. About
Scan the Lohnausweis, the withholding statement and the pillar 3a certificate as they arrive: when the NOV / TOU request is due, the receipts for the 2025 return are already sorted.
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