Guides: Switzerland explained, without the varnish
Verified, sourced answers to the questions that actually matter once you arrive in Switzerland. Free to read, and each one stamped with the date it was checked.
All guides
- SERAFE: the Swiss household media fee CHF 335 per year, per household, whether or not you own a television. You never sign up for it, and you cannot opt out.
- Exchanging your driving licence in Switzerland Twelve months from taking up residence, no theory test, and one control drive you only get one shot at.
- Swiss rubbish: the bag, the fines, and the bags they open There is no national bag price, Geneva has no bag tax at all, and in five cities the inspectors open your rubbish looking for your name on an envelope.
- Applying for a Swiss apartment: what they may ask, and what they may not The one-third rule is not law, you must propose one replacement tenant and not three, and in seven Swiss cities you have a statutory right to know what the last tenant paid.
- Opening a Swiss bank account without a permit No Swiss law requires a residence permit to open an account. Banks ask for one as their own risk policy, which is exactly why one says yes and another says no.
- AHV, pensions, and what actually comes off a Swiss salary 12.8 percent up to CHF 148,200 and 10.6 above it, split with your employer. The 1 percent solidarity levy that English payroll content still quotes was abolished in 2023.
- Your first Swiss tax year In your arrival year you are taxed only on what you actually earned here, but at the rate for the annualised figure. And the bill arrives a year after the money did.
- Swiss schools and childcare: what an arriving parent needs In Geneva you may register for childcare from the twelfth week of pregnancy, and you must refresh your file every six months or lose your place. Almost nobody writes that down in English.
The questions newcomers ask most
- SERAFE, the household media fee, for new arrivals
- The three-month health insurance deadline and the late surcharge
- English-speaking daycare in Zurich, and what it costs
- The Kita map: every daycare, and the English-speaking ones
- How the Anmeldung in Zurich works, step by step
- The apartment application dossier and the Betreibungsauszug
- Tax at source (Quellensteuer) and when you can claim money back
- Swiss health insurance for expats (LAMal)
- Exchanging your driving licence within 12 months
- The moving to Switzerland checklist, in order
- Is the cuckoo clock Swiss?
- Did Wilhelm Tell exist?
- Six Swiss inventions and their stories
- The whole history of Switzerland in 23 minutes
- Swiss Mythos: the legends and the true stories