About HowToSwiss

HowToSwiss is a free, signup-free relocation companion for people moving to Switzerland. Canton-by-canton checklists, permit guides, KVG / Quellensteuer explainers and calculators — built by expats who learned this stuff the slow way, and kept current against admin.ch, ch.ch, SEM, ESTV, BAG and cantonal sources.

Our mission

Swiss administration is not hostile — it is just unforgiving about deadlines and split across 26 cantons and 2,100+ communes, mostly in German, French or Italian. Our mission is to turn that into plain-English, canton-specific steps: what to do, in which order, by when, with the official link to do it. No signup, no paywall, no gatekeeping.

Where our data comes from

Every number in our calculators and comparison tables is traceable to an official Swiss source, and we re-check the volatile ones each year:

• Tax rates, Pillar 3a ceilings and federal tariffs — the Federal Tax Administration (ESTV/AFC) and Fedlex for the underlying law.
• Permits, quotas and residence rules — the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) and cantonal migration offices.
• Health insurance premiums and KVG rules — the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG/OFSP) and priminfo.ch.
• Social insurance (AHV/IV/ALV/BVG) — ahv-iv.ch and the Federal Social Insurance Office (BSV/OFAS).
• Rents, wages and cost of living — the Federal Statistical Office (BFS/OFS).
• Driving, vehicles and imports — ASTRA/OFROU and cantonal Strassenverkehrsämter; local rules from the relevant Gemeinde.

Calculator outputs are estimates for orientation, not assessments — see our disclaimer.

Editorial team

How guides are researched

• Every rule, deadline or fee links back to a primary source — the Confederation (admin.ch, ch.ch), the relevant federal agency (SEM for permits, ESTV / AFC for tax, BAG for health insurance, ASTRA for driving), or the cantonal office that actually issues the paperwork (Migrationsamt, Steueramt, Strassenverkehrsamt, Gemeinde).
• Where a rule differs by canton or by EU/EFTA vs non-EU status, the guide says so explicitly instead of giving one answer as universal.
• Numbers that move each year — Pillar 3a ceilings, KVG premiums, Halbtax and GA prices, Serafe household levy — are checked at the federal source before publication.
• Information that cannot yet be verified against an official source is not published until it has been checked.

Reviewed against official sources / last updated

The "Reviewed against official sources" and "Updated" badges you see at the top of each guide reflect the most recent editorial review pass across the whole site. Guides are reviewed at least every six months and whenever a federal rule change (a new premium round, an SEM circular, a tax-code amendment) or a canton-level change is published. A single shared date keeps the process honest: it's the date we actually re-checked the guides against available sources. This is not legal, tax, financial or medical advice.

Reporting an error

Every guide page has a feedback control at the bottom — "This is accurate" / "This is out of date" — with a free-text box for the correction. Reports are read, the change is reviewed against the cited source, and the guide is updated (or the source updated) in the next review pass. For anything urgent — a factual error that could cost a reader money or a missed deadline — email contact@howtoswiss.com and it will be fixed the same week.

Independence and funding

HowToSwiss is free to read and free to use, with no signup and no paywall. We may support the site through clearly disclosed display advertising and, in the future, clearly labelled affiliate links. Advertising placement never determines which providers are recommended in a guide, and no bank, insurer or relocation agency has editorial input into the content.

Get started

The fastest way is to build your free personalised checklist — pick your canton and stage, and we'll line up the right permit, registration, insurance and tax steps for you.