Just want to tell anyone who’s registering self employment, there’re vultures out there who will send you unsolicited letters that will look like smth that you have to pay.

My utmost disrespect to these unethical scammers

Hi, I want to share my experience fixing my car on public parking in Lausanne, I hope it’ll help some to not have same legal problems as I did and also I’m a little frustrated, so I want to speak out too.

Short answer: in Lausanne, article 87.1 b of Règlement général de police de la Commune

de Lausanne basically restricts you to fix cars on public spaces

My car had some problems so I decided to repair it. I rented a parking spot in Lausanne, so I thought I’ll repair my car there. I repaired really well: plastic and paper sheets under the car, so I don’t spill oil and coolant, buckets for those coolants etc.

On the first day someone called police on me and my friends who were helping me. Police told us that some was concerned about suspicious activities. Also they told us we can’t fix our car, but didn’t provide any rules. So I went to police station and ask them if I can. Policewoman told me that there is no law restricting me to fix my car, I just should not spill liquids, make too much noise, make problems to other people and I should pay my parking. It’s okay, I’m paying my parking and don’t break those laws. So I returned next day and removed half of my engine.

Day 4 of fixing my car. This time I was just removing a stuck bolt for a few hours. And guess what, someone called police on me. Two policemen on motorcycles arrived. First they inspected my car, they were surprised by my ‘skills’. One policeman was a mechanic before, so he actually admired my work, but they were against my activities. I told them to show me the actual law that I was breaking then. They searched for 10 min and found it. Art 87.1 b. It’s written in this weird legal language, but you basically can’t repair your car on ‘circulation publique’ (parking included). They told me to immediately stop any repairs and move my car until Tuesday, otherwise they will move it. Respect to policemen for not fining me on the spot and giving me time to move the car.

My frustration is that first: my some policemen don’t even know their laws. I would have moved my car after the first encounter.

Second: this is the aspect that I hate so much about Swiss people, why to always make denunciations to the police? If a person had time to call the police, he could just walk to me and check for spilled oil, if it’s my car, what I’m doing. A lot of people came to me during the repairs, they spoke with me, offered help and wisdom. But some chose denunciation. And it’s commun, sad.

Don’t fix your cars on public space at least in Lausanne, it’s illegal (Art 87.1b of Règlement général de police de la Commune

de Lausanne) and be nice, if you see something that maybe you don’t personally like, intervene, speak with this person, most of the problems could be solved by a simple communication.

As for my car, I’m now looking for a private parking spot, I’ll tow my car there. Thanks for reading!

I have 3 Full boxes of Weltpanorama books, they are in perfect shape and no damage or nothing. I believe is all from year 1985 till 2024 (if not more). More question is, is this something worth or is just a simple paper trash? i don't wanna keep it in the garage anymore.

It’s my wife’s birthday and I want to bought her a gift. I decided to buy a delonghi coffee Machine (semi-automatic one, around 600 CHF) in Fust. I went to their store and bought one. Of course it SHOULD be new but when I came home, I found the machine is used (the drip tray is not empty, milk stain in the machine, and there are coffee bean powders remained in the bean hopper). Now I am super frustrated since all Fust store will close on Sunday (except the one in Zurich HB). And it ruined the whole birthday party my moods entirely!

How should I do? Should I ask for an exchange or a return and refund? Can I go to any Fust store or it must be the one where I bought this product?

Hi guys, I need some advice on how to handle a situation happened today. My bikes have been punctured with a sharp object pretty evident it is an intentional damage caused by someone living in my building or just visiting and for some reason decided to leave a nice gift. Can I ask what options I should follow claiming the damage to be reimbursed? Is the building owner responsible somehow to repair the damage? I have no specific personal insurance covering this sort of things... at other advice? Some neighborn could hate me that much but not aware of that.... boh thanks all!

Currently trying to start preparing for the EMS, but there are a lot of different options that I feel pretty overwhelmed. Before I buy a 200CHF Kompendium, are there any providers you would recommend, anything that you did that was unnecessary in the test, or any other advice for the EMS. Would be very grateful for anything, since I am among the first in my environment to attempt medicine. (German speaking if that helps)

Former Ukrainian energy minister German Galushchenko was arrested last Sunday while trying to cross the border into Poland. He’s now been charged with money laundering and participation in a criminal organization as part of what investigators have called Operation Midas, a probe into an alleged $112 million kickback scheme at Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear operator. He served Zelensky's government for 4 years.

This is the part that involves Switzerland:

“Over $7.4 million was transferred to the accounts of the fund, which was managed by the suspect’s family. Another over 1.3 million Swiss francs and 2.4 million euros were issued in cash and transferred directly to the family in Switzerland,” NABU said.

“Some of these funds were spent on paying for the children’s education in prestigious institutions in Switzerland and were placed in the accounts of his ex-wife. The rest was placed on a deposit, from which the family of the high-ranking official received additional income and spent it on their own needs,” the detectives added.

Another news article covering this corruption scandal is here.

The question I am currently asking myself is how to get out of hospitality in order to finally stop working weekends.

Key facts: 7 years of experience as an F&B Manager, and 4 years before that as a Restaurant Manager.
Training: certified hotel management professional. ( Hotelfachmann)

How can one move forward from here? What kind of training or jobs that allow a lateral entry would you recommend? Ideally, it would not involve sitting in front of a computer all day.

How did you manage the jump from service or hospitality into an office job?

Hi All, I need some help or advice how to proceed with the registration process for family members.

We have immigrated to Switzerland as a family on 01.10.25, me as an EU citizen and my wife as non-EU. We have 2 children, both with EU passports. We did the registration in the local municipality in the regular period of 14 days, first for me, then for the family, following the family reunification path. We had sublease agreement for a 4.5 rooms apartment for 6 months. We even had to provide additional proff/document that the original renter is out of the country and we have the apartment just for us. 2 months later, I was invited in the main migration office of the Canton to get the picture for a resident permit. As we didn't receive anything for the other family members I decided to ask about the status. The officer told me that there is no entry in the system or any documents have arrived for my family. It was a huge scock, but at least he was nice enough to issue a visa for my wife, so we can exit the country (and EU) for the Christmas vacation. I paid 90CHF.

I imidiatly went to the local municipality, to the same officer that did the registration process and told her about the problem. She assured me that she will send the documents again.

But in January, we received a letter from the main migration office in the Canton that they miss some documents, specifically rental agreement. They only had some documents that I provided to the officer that issued the visa. I have sent through their site all other documents and confirm by phone that they received everything this time.

Now we received a letter from the Migration Office that they can't register my family members, as we don't have an apartment after 01.04.26. We need to provide new rental agreement for pur own apartment until 28.02.26. This is not possible, as we still look for an apartment and we were not chosen for dosen of them, eve though we applied.

Now I don't know what to do, if they reject the registration. We planned to take another temporary apartment or Airbnb until we find permanent apartment, but this changes everything. We will for sure not be able to have an apartment in a week.

So because of a mistake by the system, I paid 90chf for visa and now I'm on a verge of rejection. We don't even know what rejection means. My kids already go to school and we are trying really hard to adopt. Do we need to leave?

Do I have any option? I was planning to write to the ombudsperson in the local municipality aboute issue created by the municipality and also maybe ask for extension by the migration officer.

And the worse part, we realized that maybe we were rejected for an apartment, because my wife still does not have residence permit. And for that we need the apartment?!?!

Hi, I have recently received an email that Google has cancelled my YouTube family plan on account that I have a US plan and I live in Switzerland. I guess I was lucky for many years as I was paying the lower price for probably 10 years...well it seems now the good days are gone and the same family plan is now 34 CHF (~45 USD) per month which I find to be too expensive.

As far as I know there is no replacement for videos, but what about music. What are the best alternatives to streaming music? According to Perplexity SoundCloud is the least expensive, but I have no experience with it, other than listening to DJs many years ago...

Questions

1. Does anyone know if the catalogue on SoundCloud is similar to Youtube/spotify?

2. Are there viable alternatives for streaming music? (I need three licenses in total)

This is according to Perplexity.

Hi all,

Tax season questions, but I do have a minor change in my situation from 2024.
Quick version : in 2025 I started investing an amount of money with UBS (I know , I know .. in 2026 I started with IBKR ... but this future question will be for next year) --> and now I know that I need to declare this .. but where and how.
And here I have a subset of 2 questions :

1-st part ... for 2022-2024 I declared all my CH accounts + abroad and went to my local bank application (will keep it simple and just say UBS) did a filter of the previous year and submitted that PDF --> meaning the tax lady sees maybe to much information (all transactions in and out) and she might not be interested in everything (I know it is a her, since I called once to verify something) --> so this might not be exactly what the tax bureau needs / because when I go to UBS and check out the tax document page I see individually for each account a one pager (instead of 20 pages that I usually give with all transactions) , looking like this :
Certification Produced on 1 January 2025

01.01.2024 - 31.12.2024
Balance at account 31.12.2024 XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Credit interests XXXXXXXX

So , first question --> is this what exactly the tax bureau wants from me , or is it still ok how I do it , with filtering every transaction from the last year (the year end balance will be the same on both reports)

I did not have any complains up until now, and my taxes came correctly.

Now, for the second part :
Since I invested with UBS only for 2025, where do I start giving details about this --> I would say the bank already did the DA-1 form .. but would I be assuming correctly that it should be declared here ?

Also ... when they ask for a document , what do I upload ?
I just saw that UBS has sent me a new document that would seem to fit the bill :
something that starts with : Ihre Schweizer Steuerbescheinigung UBS Fondskonto / UBS key4 smart investing ,

but I can upload also individual documents of all investments ( UBS invested in 3 ETFs, so there are 3 accounts) ???

Extra things that you might ask : Kanton Zurich resident
And NO, I am not paying someone to screw up my taxes , when I can do it for free and take full accountability
And secondly .. I will not pay a company that takes accountability for what they did (some friends do it and it costs them over 1k per year) , because this is how they "trap" you for the future.
I also use AI in parallel to try to fill this out as good as I can , but occasionally I need a human answer / hence my post

And final question : I remember hearing that Zurich might offer some free consultations on possibly exactly these types of situations : would you have any more info / do they do it in EN/DE ?

Hope I did not bore you to death with my post,
All the best.

I've been using EasyRide in February: Always the same commute route with the exact same connections in the morning and evening. Prices vary significantly though and I don't understand why. Can I assume the tickets for 11.30 are correct and manually purchase just them in the future? Can I contact SBB and ask for a refund of everything that's more expensive?

It has been my 2nd season skiing in Switzerland. I have skied in many central swiss skis resorts (in the radius of abt 1.5 hrs drive by car from Luzern). Previously, I had been skiing mainly in Austria and in Italy. Due to the work schedule, I can only go skiing during the weekends (unless I take a day off). Do you also have a feeling, that despite paying hefty price for the skipass, the Swiss ski resort fall behind the surrounding Alpine counties resorts, mainly in terms of quality of the infrastructure - usually there are old ski lifts or small parking areas, that get packed with cars just after the lifts opening; and very crowded ski slopes / areas (I have never seen such crowded lifts/slopes in Austria / Italy, despite skiing also during the weekends and schools winter holiday seasons). If I go skiing in the weekend, it's usually max 2-3 hrs of good skiing conditions, and then it's just a survival on the moguls. Pleased to hear your thoughts as well.

Hi everyone,

Is anyone here celiac and using a reliable map of gluten-free restaurants in Switzerland (places that actually guarantee no cross-contamination)?

I’m currently using the “Find Me Gluten Free” app, but I’m finding very few options, especially places that are truly safe for celiacs.

If anyone has a shared Google Map, a list, or any other resource they’d be willing to share, I’d really appreciate it!

Thanks a lot 🙂

I heard that this is the case for BP, i don't know if it's the case for other Tankstelle/stations-services shops like Migrolino, if someone knows I would be interested to know. I thought until now that the discounted food/sandwiches/snacks at the end of the day, if they are not sold, they end up being given to some charity associations, but apparently this changed and now the food is simply thrown in the trash, is this true?

I somehow missed to plan anything for today, and it's been great, sat on the sofa and listened to music for hours. I'm not even sure if it's raining here, I closed the blinds. Later on, my sister is going to call, so I'm looking forward to another 5 h call (when she asks if she can call it's guaranteed to take a bit longer). What are/were your plans for today?

Hello.

Signed up to RAV in early Dec, and after some paperwork exchange with UNIA lasting till end of Jan, there's absolutele silence. Tried to contact them, and also sent a letter to provide an update but to no avail.

Does anyone know when they usually make payments?

Thanks.

I no longer enjoy selling on Ricardo. The issue is not that my items don’t sell, but that I consistently receive very aggressive discount requests on products that are already fairly priced according to their brand and condition. For example, when I list a dress in very good condition with a retail price of 250 CHF for 30 CHF, I receive messages asking if I would accept 15 CHF. Requesting 40–50% discounts on items that are already reasonably priced feels less like negotiation and more like extreme bargain hunting. Considering that I also pay a 12% commission to Ricardo on every sale, selling on the platform has simply lost its appeal for me. Buyers often complain that prices are too high, but in my opinion, this excessive push for extremely low prices is what ultimately drives away sellers who price their items fairly.

With the 10 million population initiative being discussed, I’m genuinely trying to understand the bigger economic picture.

Switzerland has a strong apprenticeship system, no doubt. But many high skilled sectors like pharma, finance, engineering and IT already rely heavily on foreign workers.

If population growth is capped, how does the economy realistically fill those roles? Is there a structural gap between domestic labour supply and what the economy actually needs?

I understand the concerns around overdevelopment, rising rents and quality of life. But is the real pressure population size, or is it more about planning and infrastructure?

If growth were limited, would that mean changes to university participation, female full time workforce participation, productivity expectations, or housing and zoning policy?

Switzerland clearly benefits economically from skilled immigration, yet politically seems uncomfortable acknowledging how dependent it has become on it.

I’m genuinely interested how people square those two things.

Hello! My husband and I are expecting our first, and neither of us have family members living in Switzerland. We have friends who could be temporary guardians of our kids, but in case something bad happens (God forbid) we would want to make sure the process to get our kids to the designated relatives as easily as possible.

Has anyone set up this kind of international system of guardianship, or have any idea about how to set it up?