In the beginning, there was Pillar 1 Your Swiss retirement rests in the hands of three pillars. We will begin by talking about the first pillar. Switzerland’s social security system is usually referred to as Pillar 1 (or AVS or AHV). Salaries are taxed for Swiss social security just like the USA, but with a big difference: there is no salary cap on Swiss social security contributions. Do you make
Retirement Planning
Financial Education Video Library – Introduction
Welcome to the Swiss American Wealth Advisors Financial Education Video Library! This is a free educational resource designed to help individuals and families with US and Swiss ties understand how to navigate their US/Swiss crossborder financial planning needs. What is US/Swiss crossborder financial planning? If you are an individual or family with US and Swiss financial ties, either because you are Swiss living in or relocating to the USA, American living in or relocating to Switzerland, the owner
IRS Reporting Relief for U.S. Taxpayers with Certain Foreign Pensions
The IRS released Revenue Procedure 2020-17, which will be published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin on March 16th, 2020 and could have implications for your 2019 tax return. What’s the big deal about this new Rev. Proc? It provides relief to US participants of foreign pensions and other tax favored foreign accounts. This article will focus on the relief on foreign pension reporting, which can be one of the biggest headaches for
Do you Have a Foreign Pension? It May be Invested in PFICs
In our blog post IRS Tax Relief for U.S. Taxpayers with Certain Foreign Pensions I wrote: Before anyone goes rushing into investing in a Pillar 3 or other individual foreign pensions, though, one final comment about PFICs. Swiss ETFs or mutual funds, and other foreign investment funds that are the typical investment vehicles used in foreign individual retirement accounts, are generally classified as PFICs for US tax purposes. PFICs are
