What are the financial advantages of living in Switzerland?
The cost of living is quite high in New York City.  It has the highest CPI (Consumer Price Index) of any city in the U.S.  Salaries also tend to be highest in NYC.  Just about any bicycle lock sold in the U.S. has an exception in its warranty for NYC.  It is the most populous American city. So, why do people deal with all the hassles of living here? Because, it is a hotbed of activity.   I venture that the advantages are basically the same in Zurich: In addition to what George said, there are other things that probably benefit Switzerland: Switzerland was once known for its high regard for private property rights.  Recently it is has started to violate those rights by forcing banks to turn over the names of account holders to the US government.  Not a great trend. Another aspect that makes Switzerland an attractive place for people and businesses is the Swiss governemnt's neutral policy.  The Swiss government is not deploying the Swiss military around the globe to fight terrorism, to spread democracy, to advance its own power, or other such murderous government programs.  The Swiss people do not have to worry about the payback that arrives because of such depraved government programs. The Swiss were traditionally extreme advocates of individual gun rights which allows the people to provide protection for themselves against others and against the government.  This too is changing (read section on The Enemy Within) in a not so favorable direction. I also belive the Swiss Franc was the last major currency to sever its tie to gold.  The currency use to be highly desired due to its tie to gold.  I think the currency is still highly regarded but the Swiss central bank is participating in the currency war and has attempted multiple times in the past couple of years to debase its currency so it does not appreciate against the euro or dollar. Some of the advantages of Switzerland: Not everything is about money. The lake is beautiful. The Swiss people are really good educated The companies want to be a part of these great reputation. We have low taxes We are political stable Our currency is stable We are company-friendly Companies, especially big ones, find in Switzerland a business-friendly environment and often benefit from a special tax regime. Don't mix the companies interests with yours. As per Wikipedia of right now, here are unemployment figures for Switzerland and surrounding countries: Liechtenstein, unfortunately, does not have a large job market, given its total population of about 37,000 people. And note that the German figure of 4.5% is the lowest it has been for decades - I'd expect this number to go up and the Swiss one to stay constant. Bottom line: you will have an easier time finding a job in Switzerland. (Plus all the other good points the other answers raised: great mountains, great chocolate, low taxes, clean streets etc.)
"Roughly about 1 of 2 Swiss francs is won abroad. So, yes it is easier for Swiss companies to export when the Swiss franc is not ""too high"" as it has been those last years. The main export market for Switzerland is the UE. Some companies are doing most or all of their business on the Swiss market. Others are much more exposed to the the health of the global economy. When the Swiss franc appreciates, some companies suffer a lot from that and other less. It depends on their product portfolio, competitors, and other factors. The last decades have shown that how the Swiss Franc valuation is less and less correlated with the performance of the Swiss economy. The Swiss franc is used as a safe haven when the global economy goes bad or is uncertain. In those times, the Swiss franc can be overevaluated, at least as compared to the purchasing power. When the global economy is improving, the over-appreciation of the Swiss franc tends to disapear ; this is happening now (in Mid-2017). As a summary, the Swiss franc itself is not truly correlated with the competitiveness of the Swiss economy, but more about how people in the world are anxious. In this regard, it behaves a little bit like gold." This is more of an economics question than personal finance. That said, I already started writing an answer before I noticed, so here are a few points. I'll leave it open for others to expand the list. Advantages Disadvantages Advantages Disadvantages The flip-side to the argument that more users means more stability is that the impact of a strong economy (on the value of the currency) is diluted somewhat by all the other users. Indeed, if adopted by another country with similar or greater GDP, that economy could end up becoming the primary driver of the currency's value.  It may be harder to control counterfeiting. Perhaps not in the issuing country itself, but in foreign countries that do not adopt new bills as quickly. Having lived in both places, I have to say you can find a higher income in the US for the same job and can live in a small town versus having to live in a big city in Canada to find decent salaries.  For similar sized cities, the cost of housing is significantly lower in the US than Canada.  That is your biggest factor in cost of living.  If you are thinking of NYC or San Francisco, there are no comparable size cities in Canada and you would probably be better off in Canada.   My tax preparer was amazed at how much I paid in Capital Gains taxes when I left Canada.  Maybe it is different now but I doubt it. The biggest free lunch in the US is a generous capital gains exemption when you sell your primary residence without any lifetime cap or cap on the number of times you can do it.  There are rules on how long you have to live in it before selling. For investment real estate, all expenses are deductible in addition to fictional depreciation so with a mortgage you can have positive cash flow and pay no income tax.  You can keep doing tax deferred exchanges into bigger and bigger rentals.  When you are close to retirement, you can exchange into your ultimate beach home, rent it out a few years, then convert to a primary residence. "Q) Will I have to submit the accounts for the Swiss Business even though Im not on the payroll - and the business makes hardly any profit each year. I can of course get our accounts each year - BUT - they will be in Swiss German! You will have to submit on your income from the business.  The term ""partnership"" refers to a specific business entity type in the U.S.  I'm not sure if you're using it the same way.  In a partnership in the U.S. you pay income tax on your share of the partnership's income whether or not you actually receive income in your personal account.  There's not enough information here to know if that applies in your case. (In the U.S., the partnership itself does not pay income tax - It is a ""disregarded entity"" for tax purposes, with the tax liability passed through to the partners as individuals.) Q) Will I need to have this translated!? Is there any format/procedure to this!? Will it have to be translated by my Swiss accountants? - and if so - which parts of the documentation need to be translated!? As regards language, you will file a tax return on a U.S. form presumably in English.  You will not have to submit your account information on any other form, so the fact that your documentation is in German does not matter.  The only exception that comes to mind is that you could potentially get audited (just like anyone else filing taxes in the U.S.) in which case you might need to produce your documentation.  That situation is rare enough that I wouldn't worry about it though.  I'm not sure if they'd take it in German or force you to get a translation. I was told that if I sell the business (and property) after I aquire a greencard - that I will be liable to 15% tax of the profit I'd made. I also understand that any tax paid (on selling) in Switzerland will be deducted from the 15%!? Q) Is this correct!? The long-term capital gains rate is 15% for most people. (At very high incomes it is 20%.)  It sounds like you would qualify for long-term (held for greater than 1 year) capital gains in this case, although the details might matter. There is a foreign tax credit, but I'm not completely sure if it would apply in this case. (If forced to guess, I would say that it does.)  If you search for ""foreign tax credit"" and ""IRS"" you should get to the information that you need pretty quickly. I will effectively have ALL the paperwork for this - as we'll need to do the same in Switzerland. But again, it will be in Swiss German. Q) Would this be a problem if its presented in Swiss German!? Even in this case you will not need to submit any of your paperwork to the IRS, unless you get audited.  See earlier comments." I may be moving to Switzerland soon and would like to know if there's a similar system to move money between a Swiss bank account and a U.S bank account. There is no easy way.  The most common method is International Wire or SWIFT. These kinds of transfer are generally charged in the range of USD 20 to USD 50 per transfer. It generally takes 2 to 5 days to move the money. Some Banks have not yet given the facility to initiate a International Wire from Internet banking platforms. One has to physically walk-in. So if this is going to be frequent, make sure both your banks offer this. As the volume between US and Switzerland is less, there may not be any dedicated remittance service providers [these are generally low cost]. I think the point is that m2 is 13.7 trillion usd, the Swiss investment is not even *half* a percent.  The us equities marker valuation is larger at 22.5 trillion USD. Dumping an extra 100 bil usd is too little to do anything. Even dumping a trillion USD  is a relatively small number. If S&P crashes, these currencies will appreciate. Note that the above is speculation, not fact. There is definitely no guarantee that, say, the CHF/CAD currency pair is inversely linked to the performance of the US stock market when measured in USD, let alone to the performance of the US stock market as measured in CAD. How can a Canadian get exposure to a safe haven currency like CHF and JPY? I don't want a U.S. dollar denominated ETF. Three simple options come to mind, if you still want to pursue that: Have money in your bank account. Go to your bank, tell them that you want to buy some Swiss francs or Japanese yen. Walk out with a physical wad of cash. Put said wad of cash somewhere safe until needed. It is possible that the bank will tell you to come back later as they might not have the physical cash available at the branch office, but this isn't anything really unusual; it is often highly recommended for people who travel abroad to have some local cash on hand. Contact your bank and tell them that you want to open an account denominated in the foreign currency of your choice. They might ask some questions about why, there might be additional fees associated with it, and you'll probably have to pay an exchange fee when transferring money between it and your local-currency-denominated accounts, but lots of banks offer this service as a service for those of their customers that have lots of foreign currency transactions. If yours doesn't, then shop around. Shop around for money market funds that focus heavily or exclusively on the currency area you are interested in. Look for funds that have a native currency value appreciation as close as possible to 0%. Any value change that you see will then be tied directly to the exchange rate development of the relevant currency pair (for example, CHF/CAD). #1 and #3 are accessible to virtually anyone, no large sums of money needed (in principle). Fees involved in #2 may or may not make it a practical option for someone handling small amounts of money, but I can see no reason why it shouldn't be a possibility again in principle. Just like Switzerland lost its banking privileges by not being in the EU, huh?   The truth is none of us really know what's going to happen so we all need to stop throwing out opinions as fact.  London has an already established stable banking climate and the cost and effort of relocating to other places might prove to be too high as opposed to just working something out between the Brits and the Europeans. We just don't know yet. This kid gives a good summary of the silver market as it currently stands, and why you should own the physical:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAK9ohz9h7M  But yes, you will do well to have bank accounts in China and Switzerland, diversifying into yuan and francs... and also jurisdictionally diversifying. Swiss Central bank has a floor of 1.20, the reason why I have this pair is that my downside is limited.  The actual differential is about 20 bps but im leveraged 50:1, which gives me a fun 10% annualized. I bought in at 1.2002, meaning my max downside on an investment of 20K (gives 1mn of exposure), is 200$ and my potential profit is 2000. Creating a risk to return of 10:1. Any large bank that you trust would be happy to help you by holding the money for you.  One of the big advantages with a Swiss bank account is privacy. The names of lottery winners are public, so this advantage would not mean much to you. Swiss banks are generally very large, secure, and capable of handling large amounts of money, however, so if Switzerland isn't too inconvenient for you, it's worth considering.  You won't want to keep all of it in a bank account for long; the majority of it should be invested. It would definitely be worth paying for a trusted financial advisor to guide you through that.  Avoid the urge to swim in a pile of gold coins. "Funny how you're talking about short term economics while I'm talking long term projections. Sweden is on the verge of a housing bubble far worse than the one the US saw in 2008. O don't look at last year and the year before I look at what their policies are doing for the future. You're right I've never lived in Europe but countries with a 50% tax rate on income aren't the ideal situation to live just ask switzerland the most stable and consistent economy in all of Europe and arguably the world for the last decade +. Yes they have income tax but not at an outrageous rate and they also have market and personal freedom at level that shadows what we have here ""the land of the free"" switzerland actually follows our constitution better than our own government does. This country was founded on idea of freedom and states rights. Not an over bearing over reaching federal government. As far as comparing the government to your parents house, that's a comparison clearly made by a simpleton. Your parents role in your life is to teach you responsibility and give your life structure. The government's role is to serve you not steal from you. How did the US make it so long with an income tax?" I think the logic in your example demonstrates it is silly to make a decision for tax benefits alone.   Saving 75 is much preferred to a cash outflow of 100 less tax savings of 25. To answer your question, paying mortgage interest represents the fee for the cheapest money most people will ever access, which in itself is a benefit (e.g. renting vs buying). The benefits are maximized when the aggregate of  appreciation, inflation, tax savings exceeds total interest expense. "In the Netherlands its cheaper in some cases to have a mortgage then to own a house.   Example: If you own a house you pay more taxes (because you own something expensive you have to pay ""eigendoms belasting"" < owners tax). So if you instead of owning the house,  keep the mortgage low and only pay the mortgage interest, the interest will be much lower then the tax you would have to pay. The sweet spot (for lowest interest and not having to pay the owners tax) is different for any mortgage but by grandparents use this method and they pay a really small amount for a rather large house." I know there are plenty of people who have to deal with the stress and know it isn't pleasant...but it's hard to see how much worse it is as far as stress goes because I have to pay $1950 in rent each month and don't get the option to default and if I do, I don't get to wait for 8 months while the banks get their paperwork in order to evict me.  I want to believe that in the end I will come out ahead but either I've been incredibly smart with my life decisions or incredibly naive...