Hi,
tried searching posts but could not trace related information.
I work in Basel, and currently live in France (own a house in France), I (as well as other members of the family) have swiss nationality (in addition to second non-EU nationality).
Next year I was considering to rent an apartment in Basel, and use it through out the week, and get back to our house over the weekend. Keep Basel as main residence, and send kids to school in Basel, have health insurance in Switzerland etc.
I was not sure as to how many days do I have stay "out" of France to be able to use it as second home.
thanks for the info and/or pointing to relevant threads, as well as your "kind" advice/comments on pros/cons
we moved to France over 2 years ago, as it seemed as a natural choice as we were living in Geneva before, as well as since we wanted to buy property as a long term investment. Now we think it is right time to get back to Switzerland while keeping our house in France as a secondary house.
Less than 180 days in France. Be aware of capital gains tax on a second residence in France, it's recently changed to the first 30 years of ownership.
thanks, i thought capital gain tax is only when u sell it, and if you never used it as your primary residence, we did pay taxes in france for 2 years
anyways not considering selling house any time soon
Your French home will have to be declared as part of your 'fortune' for tax in CH too.
As it would in France as France has a wealth tax as well.......
Do you have a reference for that? Only we've been working on a reverse rule (which I've never been able to find, but have been 'reliably' informed about) which is that if you spend more than 60 working-day nights in Switzerland you _must_ be Swiss resident. This was a change as part of the bi-lateral agreement of a few years ago, and it's what we've been basing our living arrangements on ever since.
Only if you're actually paying French tax, which as a Swiss resident you wouldn't be.
An English site, says 183 days
http://www.french-property.com/guide...idency-status/ It's quite likely your dual resident & liable to taxation in both countries. Many people are, I know a few people living in Chamonix have come unstick, French law is quite nasty on tax evasion. They are quite capable of looking at Utility bills to realise it's not a second home.
Capital gains tax is a potential issue in France, now liable to tax & social costs.
Depending on Assets in France, even non residents are be liable to wealth tax, but only on their French assets rather than world wide assets.
Residents working in a foreign country won't be exempt from wealth tax, however for recent arrivals they don't pay for 5 years, it's a recent law.
As I understand it that's a kind of default position, and was the case for us until the bilateral agreements came into force. Although we never got nobbled for French income/wealth taxes as well as Swiss, we did have to pay import duty on a car and motorbike at one point. Interestingly though, the grounds for them (Douanes) to enforce this were based on a non-rigid definition of 'primary' residence, rather than simply number of days, which I guess they'd be unable to accurately judge anyway.
Anyway, as we understand it, that was all changed with the bilateral agreements signed in 2004 (but coming into force later). There's no specific agreement dealing with taxation, but several of them refer to being resident in CH or EU. Unfortunately I've never been able to find exactly where this is defined.
what I can confirm is that 60 day rule works for Germany; but for France I have no clue.
For Germany this is rather different e.g. if you are living in Germany and would be away for 60 days in a year including business travel + counting weekends; then you would have an option to pay tax at place of your work (say Basel in this case). Few of my colleagues have been doing this for years.
but again this rule is more of if you would be "away" from your German home for 60 days or more.
I did not know of the rule as to what will happen is you would "stay" in Switzerland for 60 days or more.
Primary residence does indeed overrule the days requirement.
Nothing changed with regard to taxation with the signing of bilateral agreements in 2004. It's quite possible to be resident in more than country, your liable to full taxation in BOTH countries, however any tax paid in 1 country can be offset against your liability in another. Further tax is often payable, along with fines & interest for late declaration. The onus is on you to pay whats owed, rather than to be asked to pay.
I could never afford to live in France due to their tax system, would make living in CH seem very cheap.
EDIT, one person I know was caught as the French could prove how many days his UK mobile phone was logged into the French network.