Before you start

Registration in the commune
Employment contract
Residence permit
An AHV number, issued through your employer

Step-by-step

1
Expect withholding at source if you hold a B or L permit
Federal, cantonal and communal tax are deducted from salary at a scale set by the canton. Nothing further is due at the point of payment.
Via employerWho: Your employer
2
Check the commune's multiplier before you sign a lease
The canton publishes the tax scale and each commune votes its own multiplier on top. Two flats fifteen minutes apart in the Bern agglomeration can carry meaningfully different bills on the same salary, and the Federal Tax Administration publishes the comparison across cantonal capitals.
OnlineWho: You
3
Request an ordinary assessment if it pays
Above an income threshold it is compulsory. Below it, you can ask for one to claim real deductions — third pillar, childcare, actual travel and meal costs, mortgage interest — instead of the flat allowances built into the withholding scale.
OnlineWho: YouBy 31 March of the following year
4
Use the third pillar and check the catch-up rule
3a contributions are deductible up to CHF 7,258 for 2026 if you are in an occupational pension scheme. From 2026 you can also buy back missed years for the first time, up to ten years back, provided the current year is already fully funded.
OnlineWho: You
5
Pay the instalments as they arrive
The canton bills provisional instalments during the year as QR-bills. Nothing is deducted automatically beyond the payroll withholding, and the second instalment of the year catches people who assumed the first one was the lot.
Mobile appWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Residence permit
Annual salary certificate
AHV number
Proof of any deductions claimed in an ordinary assessment

Things most newcomers don’t know

In Bern the commune is the dial, and living outside the city is the normal case rather than the compromise.

With 201,800 jobs and 147,012 residents, a large share of the workforce already lives in another commune or another canton. That makes the multiplier a live decision for almost everyone here in a way it is not in a city that houses its own workers — and it moves with the health premium region, which is set on the same geography.

Source: Statistik Stadt Bern; Federal Tax Administration

Withholding at source is not the end of the story if you have deductions.

The withholding scale bakes in flat allowances. If you pay into a third pillar, have childcare costs or commute a long way, an ordinary assessment can be worth more than the paperwork — but it must be requested by 31 March following the tax year, and the deadline is not extended for people who did not know about it.

Source: Canton of Bern — taxes

The third pillar catch-up is new and most people have not used it.

From 2026 you can buy back missed 3a years for the first time, up to ten years back, provided the current year is fully funded. For someone who arrived mid-career and paid into nothing for several years, that is a deduction sitting unused.

Source: Federal Tax Administration

Nothing debits itself, including the tax instalments.

Provisional instalments arrive as QR-bills through the year. There is no PAYE-style reconciliation happening quietly in the background beyond the payroll withholding, and a missed instalment produces interest rather than a reminder.

Source: Canton of Bern — taxes

Common mistakes to avoid

Comparing two addresses in the agglomeration on rent alone, ignoring the communal multiplier and the health premium region.
Missing the 31 March deadline to request an ordinary assessment and losing a year of real deductions.
Assuming payroll withholding settles everything when you have deductible costs.
Ignoring the provisional instalment bills because payroll already withholds.
Modelling a property purchase on the imputed rental value rules being abolished already — the change is approved but not yet in force.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.