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.
Who runs the site
Mohammed Ali
Editor, HowToSwiss
Based in the Zurich area. Writes practical relocation guides for newcomers to Switzerland, kept current against admin.ch, BAG and cantonal sources.
HowToSwiss is an independent one-person publication, not a relocation agency, not a law firm and not a tax advisor. The guides are written from lived experience of the Swiss administrative process — Anmeldung, permit renewals, KVG enrolment, Quellensteuer, filing an ordinary return — and cross-checked against the official Swiss sources cited on each page.
Contact: info@howtoswiss.app
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.
- Anything the author is not certain about is left as a visible placeholder for review rather than silently guessed.
Verified / last updated
The "Verified" and "Updated" badges you see at the top of each guide reflect the most recent review pass across the whole site. Guides are reviewed at least every six months and immediately 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 review process honest: it's the date we actually re-checked the guides against sources.
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Every guide page has a feedback control at the bottom — "This is accurate" / "This is out of date" — with a free-text box for the correction.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 verified 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 info@howtoswiss.app 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. The site is supported by display advertising (Google AdSense) and, in future, by clearly-labelled affiliate links to Swiss financial and mobility providers. 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.