The Tax Expat in Zurich

This week on The Tax Expat we have Kinga Zawora, who is from Poland and is currently working in the Big 4 in Zurich. Rather than our typical interview, we’re going with a slightly different format with this week’s and Kinga has kindly written a blog post about the decisions and experiences that underlie her move from Poland to London to Poland to Zurich.

It’s another exciting journey for a tax ex-pat! Enjoy.

My name is Kinga and I am from Poland. Four years ago, being quite naïve, I thought that to be successful I would need to:

• Graduate from a good business University having good grades (in my case it was Nottingham Trent University)
• Specialise in a narrow field (e.g. Indirect Taxation, what I am currently trying to do)
• Always be hardworking
• Have some corporate experience
• Enjoy what I do

More or less true, however, what turns out to be the path to success for some, fails in other cases. Shortly after graduating with a distinction from Nottingham Trent, I started looking – hopelessly – for a job as a Consultant in the area of Indirect Taxation in London. With little luck, I shortly went back to Poland, where I found a job in one of the biggest tax outsourcing centres in Europe (that provides services to Big 4 entities).

Having had some previous VAT compliance experience, I got the position of Dutch VAT Supervisor. To be honest, the most interesting part of this was not the process work itself, but the long-awaited possibility of being part of an international environment, growing professionally, and facing new experiences. After all, indirect tax is a very globally mobile career path.

As some say, once in a lifetime you can get a chance to change your life completely, and you can either take it as it is or it will never happen again. So I took my opportunity and, several months later, I was living in Zurich.

Continuing my career in Indirect Tax within the Big 4 – but now in Zurich

I have been fortunate again to be working with the most intelligent and experienced team of international tax professionals. I quickly found that this was a role where I could raise my voice and come up with new ideas.

Even though I am only 27 and haven’t yet had a full career worth of experiences, I’ve been quite lucky to not only make great friendships but build relationships with those who are now the best people in my life, who put their trust in me and I can put my trust into them. This has been a key part of my expat experience.

So how have I found life as a tax ex-pat in Switzerland in particular?

Not only do I love Swiss nature and the beauty of its landscape, but the Swiss mentality has taught me not only the importance of precision but also new perspectives of ‘never settling’ or that ‘no task is beneath me’. Once one adopts these views, unlimited possibilities will become apparent. As my mum says, ‘If they throw you away through the door, jump in through the window and prove what you can do’. And when I look back and wonder about what I’d do if my time again, I am 100% sure that I would act the same way. Sometimes I think it would be nicer if Switzerland were by the sea, but I can deal with this! 🙂

So after 1.5 years of living in Switzerland, I can say that this place has not only given me professional opportunities but also the chance to understand more about myself and make new friendships.

In my opinion, young and ambitious people nowadays have an endless world of professional possibilities. Nobody says it will be easy at the beginning to relocate to a new place but, as in my case, I didn’t know anybody in Zurich and now I have my whole life here. The question one needs to ask themselves is ‘do you want such a change?’ Nevertheless, no matter what kind of tax you have, I wish everyone to take work as a hobby and enjoy every moment!

Are you a Tax Expat? If so, we’d love to hear about your experiences and share them with our global tax network. For more information, please contact Alex Mann.

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