Health insurance while not residing in Switzerland

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1
First post in here. Hi all.

First of all, I have a confession to make: I live only intermittently in Switzerland, and I actually AM a Swiss citizen. However, I moved to Norway (motherland) when I was very young and haven't spent much time in Switzerland the last years until recently. So in a way, I guess I am a kind of a faux expat.

But my Schwyzerdütsch is bit rusty (I learnt German in Germany) and I am unfamiliar with living in Switzerland. So I am essentially an expat. Therefore I figured my questions would be best answered in this forum. Plus I would like to make acquaintances in the CH expat community.

Anyways, I have a situation regarding taxing and paying insurance in Switzerland. I will be changing my residency to Zurich this year as I am beginning to do research at university there. I will however not spend much time in Zurich, maybe just a couple weeks every other month. Therefore I was wondering if I have to enlist for Swiss health insurance. I already have a comprehensible private global health insurance (since I don't really live one place permanently). Furthermore, as I am still a registered resident (and citizen) of Norway, I am covered by multilateral agreement on provision of public healthcare Norway has with all EEA countries plus Switzerland for all visits up to 50 days.

I don't want to come off a as a cheapskate, but I have in effect been triply covered (and payed thusly) the last year while working in Germany (German labor laws demand that any employee be covered by domestic Krankenverischerung) and would like to cut that habit. It also makes my paperwork a lot easier.

My employer is not Swiss - I will only be registered as a student in Zurich and I'm self-employed - so I being covered by domestic health insurance should not be a sine qua non for my life there.

A secondary question would then be if I really need to register as a residence, and if I can in such a case still be a tax resident (Grenzengänger)? But I guess that would belong in a different thread.

Grateful for any form of feedback, comment or answers. Eagerly and humbly awaiting replies.

2

If you become resident you must have Swiss health insurance and you’ll probably be taxed here too. You’d need to check with Zurich canton to see if they might accept your global insurance as a substitute, but it doesn’t happen very often that they will.

3
I am not sure whether this still holds, but you have a "grace period" before you are obliged to sign up. Idem not paying into two insurance systems at once - expensive. This is what I was told in 2005. Things might have changed however.

A.

4

Still, the same - 3 months I believe - but the insurance/payments will be backdated to the date you arrived in Switzerland. Also if you go over this period the canton/commune will automatically enroll you in their own health insurance scheme which may end up being more expensive than one you would have chosen yourself.

5
To be honest, I cannot remember whether I paid (or was obliged to pay) in 2005 for two health insurance systems concurrently. Seems very unfair.

I shall certainly try to avoid that situation this time.

A.

6
I think if you register here with the Zoll Amt and get a VAT number (MWSt) you can then send the University invoices for your work, and you will pay MehrWertSteuer tax on them. Maybe ask the Uni if they would be happy paying you this way, it will be cheaper for them.

If you keep below the 3 months residence registration requirement, you should be able to avoid health insurance and wages tax.