The Swiss communities where you're more likely to meet a millionaire
Switzerland has a reputation for having its fair share of wealthy residents all over the country. But there are a handful of Swiss communities where the well-to-do particularly like to settle.
To find out where, Swiss paper NZZ found a clear pattern in where high net worth people particularly like to live, and not surprisingly, many choose low tax areas—some fairly close to major cities.
The reason why some cantons see a lot more wealthy individuals in Switzerland comes down partly to how easy it is to get across cantons with highly different tax setups.
A family earning a million francs in the canton of Bern might fork out 360,000 francs in municipal, cantonal, and federal taxes. Drive across the mountain pass into Obwalden and that same family might only have to pay taxes of 226,000 francs—saving well over 100,000 francs in taxes just by living a few kilometres away.
These clear regional disparities in tax take-ins help explain why towns in the small Schwyz canton are particularly popular. While Zurich remains close by, a family living there and making a million francs hands over 300,000 of that to the tax office. In Schwyz, only a half hour away, it’s about 175,000 francs.
READ MORE: Where in Switzerland has the lowest and highest taxes
While some places in Switzerland have higher numbers of millionaires overall, certain towns have a particularly high proportion of millionaires relative to their populations. These 10 towns, ranked, are:
- Wollerau, Schwyz
- Feusisberg, Schwyz
- Vandoeuvres, Geneva
- Cologne, Geneva
- Walchwil, Zug
- Freienbach, Schwyz
- Pierrafortscha, Fribourg
- Rossenges, Vaud
- Buchillon, Vaud (1.9 percent)
- Küsnacht, Zurich
With two Geneva canton towns in this list, there are still some high-tax cantons millionaires will settle in within Switzerland, particularly with fewer low tax choices available in French-speaking Switzerland as opposed to German-speaking Switzerland.
In terms of absolute numbers, however, Zurich has the highest number of millionaires overall.
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To find out where, Swiss paper NZZ found a clear pattern in where high net worth people particularly like to live, and not surprisingly, many choose low tax areas—some fairly close to major cities.
The reason why some cantons see a lot more wealthy individuals in Switzerland comes down partly to how easy it is to get across cantons with highly different tax setups.
A family earning a million francs in the canton of Bern might fork out 360,000 francs in municipal, cantonal, and federal taxes. Drive across the mountain pass into Obwalden and that same family might only have to pay taxes of 226,000 francs—saving well over 100,000 francs in taxes just by living a few kilometres away.
These clear regional disparities in tax take-ins help explain why towns in the small Schwyz canton are particularly popular. While Zurich remains close by, a family living there and making a million francs hands over 300,000 of that to the tax office. In Schwyz, only a half hour away, it’s about 175,000 francs.
READ MORE: Where in Switzerland has the lowest and highest taxes
While some places in Switzerland have higher numbers of millionaires overall, certain towns have a particularly high proportion of millionaires relative to their populations. These 10 towns, ranked, are:
- Wollerau, Schwyz
- Feusisberg, Schwyz
- Vandoeuvres, Geneva
- Cologne, Geneva
- Walchwil, Zug
- Freienbach, Schwyz
- Pierrafortscha, Fribourg
- Rossenges, Vaud
- Buchillon, Vaud (1.9 percent)
- Küsnacht, Zurich
With two Geneva canton towns in this list, there are still some high-tax cantons millionaires will settle in within Switzerland, particularly with fewer low tax choices available in French-speaking Switzerland as opposed to German-speaking Switzerland.
In terms of absolute numbers, however, Zurich has the highest number of millionaires overall.
READ ALSO:
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