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Take-home pay: Zurich vs Italy

Estimate for information only, not tax advice. How these numbers were derived

The price level for Zurich is its whole country's; none is published for it alone.

Zurich 2026, Italy 2026Price levels 2024, checked 10 September 2026Data checked 26 September 2026

CHF 85,000 in Zurich buys the same as €47,522.53 in Italy. Here is what each tax system leaves of it.

Once prices are levelled, Zurich leaves CHF 13,229.58 more a year, 23.7% more than Italy.

At the exchange rate the same salary would be €89,842.51 in Italy, on 29 September 2026. Converting a salary that way ignores what it buys.

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What each place leaves you

2 bars on one scale, the longest being CHF 69,093.48.

    • Zurich CHF 69,093.48
    • Italy CHF 55,863.90
    Take-home pay in each place, at the other's prices, on one scale.

    Side by side

    LineZurichItaly
    Gross salaryCHF 85,000€47,522.53
    Total deductionsCHF 15,906.52€16,289.66
    Net salaryCHF 69,093.48€31,232.87
    Net salary / monthCHF 5,757.79€2,602.74
    Real take-home (CHF)CHF 69,093.48CHF 55,863.90
    Keep rate81.3%65.7%
    Effective rate18.7%34.3%
    Marginal rate28.9%49.5%

    Real take-home is each side's net pay expressed at the origin's prices, using 2024 purchasing power parities. It is the only row where the two columns can be read against each other directly.

    Zurich Tax year 2026

    Withholding tax (Quellensteuer) 7.87%CHF 6,689.52
    Old-age, survivors' and disability insurance (AHV/IV/EO) 5.3%CHF 4,505
    Unemployment insurance (ALV) 1.1%CHF 935
    Occupational pension, legal minimum (BVG)CHF 2,927
    Non-occupational accident insurance (NBU) 1.0%CHF 850
    • Taxed at source (permit B or L, spouse not Swiss or C permit): yes
    • Family situation (withholding tariff): Single
    • Children you support: 0
    • Church member (church tax): no
    • Age (sets the pension fund contribution): 35 to 44
    • Non-occupational accident insurance, your share (%): 1

    Assumes pay in twelve equal monthly instalments with no thirteenth month or bonus, the occupational pension at the legal minimum for your age, and the accident insurance rate above. Your employer's pension plan usually takes more than the legal minimum. The employer side leaves out the occupational accident premium and the administration costs of the compensation fund, both of which depend on the employer.

    Change the assumptions for Zurich

    Italy Tax year 2026

    Income tax (IRPEF)€10,787.55
    Regional surtax (addizionale regionale)€648.12
    Municipal surtax (addizionale comunale)€344.10
    Pension contributions (INPS IVS) 9.19%€4,367.32
    Wage supplementation fund (CIG) 0.3%€142.57
    • City (sets the regional and municipal surtaxes): Milan
    • Employer size: More than 50 employees
    • Contract: Permanent (tempo indeterminato)
    • First insured with INPS before 1996: no

    Assumes an employee with no other income and no family tax credits, working the full year as a white-collar employee of an industrial company. IRPEF is the amount the employer settles at the year-end adjustment; the regional and municipal surtaxes are what this year's pay owes, which the payslip actually takes in instalments the following year. The employer side leaves out the severance fund (TFR) the employer sets aside, the INAIL accident premium and anything a collective agreement adds.

    Change the assumptions for Italy

    Comparing an Italian payslip with another country's

    An Italian payslip takes the employee's social security contributions, mostly for the state pension, then income tax on what remains after the employment tax credit, then a regional and a municipal surtax on the same income. At low incomes it also adds two payments the state makes through the employer. The employer pays a much larger share of the contributions on top of gross, so the employer's cost of the job is well above the salary.

    Health care in Italy is provided by the national health service and paid for from general taxation, so it is neither a deduction on the payslip nor a purchase in the household budget. Against an American state that matters most, because the American net figure has not yet paid for health insurance. Against another European country the comparison is closer, but the same risks are split between tax, contributions and private spending in different proportions on each side.

    Equal purchasing power, not the exchange rate

    The second gross salary on this page is the one that buys the same basket in the other place, derived from official purchasing power parities. Both sides then go through their own payroll rules, and what is left is brought back to one set of prices in the row labelled real take-home. Because both columns begin with the same real income, the difference at the end is the tax and contribution systems and nothing else.

    Where the other side is a US state, its price level is chained rather than measured: Eurostat publishes a parity for the United States as a whole, the Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes an index placing each state against the American average, and the state figure is the first scaled by the second. The page notes this above the tables. Against another euro country the exchange rate is one to one, so the whole difference in the second salary is prices.

    What the Italian side assumes

    The Italian column uses the default options declared for Italy, which are printed under it: Milan for the regional and municipal surtaxes, an employer with more than fifty employees and a permanent contract. The city changes the result by a few hundred euros a year on a middle income and by more on a high one; follow the link under the column to choose another on Italy's own page. Gross pay there is the annual figure including the thirteenth month.

    Known limits

    The Italian column is an employee with no dependants for tax purposes, and it leaves out the regime for workers moving to Italy, which exempts part of the income of new residents who qualify. Someone relocating to Italy should check whether it applies to them, because it changes the Italian side a great deal. The other side of the comparison stops at its payslip in the same way.

    The tax year and the price reference year are different years, and both are shown. Neither is adjusted to meet the other.

    Sources

    Tax figures come from the official rules of each tax year. Price levels come from the statistical offices, for the reference year shown above.

    How these numbers were derived

    Each side uses its own default filing options; the assumptions are listed below the tables.

    na_item=PPP_EU27_2020 for ppp_cat A01, A0101, A0103, A0104, A0107 and A0111 at the most recent year the series carries, read from the Eurostat dissemination API. Values are the parity in national currency per PPS, so a ratio between two of them is free of market exchange rates. Not the price level index: that has the reference year's exchange rate built in.

    Line codes 1 to 5 of table SARPP for the most recent year in the file, read from apps.bea.gov/regional/zip/SARPP.zip. Values are indices with the United States at 100. A state parity in national currency is derived as the United States parity multiplied by the state index and divided by 100. That is a linking step between two official series, not a single measurement.

    Neither Eurostat nor the national statistical office publishes a price level for Zurich, so it carries the parity of the whole country unchanged. Prices in its largest cities are usually above the national figure.