Hi everybody.
After some years out of Switzerland, I'm coming back to the forum with a question.
I am in a recruiting process that could lead me to work and live in Switzerland again.
I will accept the job if I could partially work remotely from Spain. HHRR told me about a 25% law for working hours abroad.
I have some questions from this calculation, hopefully somebody can bring some light on them...
If I will work 1500h/y:
1500*0,75= 1,125h/y I need to work from the office. Could also work at any place in Switzerland during those hours?.
1125/8,5hours per day= 132 days to be working from Switzerland. But, how days abroad due to business travels are managed? As home office abroad or from Switzerland?
Thanks and best regards from Spain!
I think it depends on the contract, but 99% if you need to work "from the office" then it can not be "at any place in Switzerland". Either you are in the building or not, if not then it is "home office".
At some point in my career I used to travel frequently for the company and it never counted as "home office" - if the company sends you to Germany or Japan that's for sure not "home".
My suggestion is to clarify ASAP how many days you will be required to be physically in the building . The rest, it does not matter if you are in Switzerland or in Spain*.
*unless you spend so much time in Spain that you become fiscally resident in Spain. But these are Government rules, not Company rules, it's a different topic.
The annual hours to be worked, with 42h/week, is far more than you calculate with.
52 weeks, less about ten public holidays and 4 weeks holidays, is 46 weeks. That's 1932 hours annually with 100% contract, though it'll vary a bit from year to year depending on the weekdays the public holidays fall on.
Statistically you'll be 2-3% absent due to illnesses and accidents on top of that, make that one week of absence in total. Young folks are generally on the low end of this range.
Thanks for the FB. What HR told me is that HO was ok if we keep it below 25% for law reasons. But I think she refers to HO abroad as this 25% policy applis there.
Nevertheless, in the. ext meeting, I will let her to clarify this.
I realizre, what it is important here is to spend at least 55-60% of your time living in Switzerland to avoid permit and taxations problems. Now the question will be: If I expend 150days in Spain, 150 days in Switzerland and 65 days on business trips should I be taxed in Switzerland or Spain. In which country I expend the most of my time?
You are completely right. Working hours will much closer to 2000py than 1500ph. I will let this question for the last process round.
Thanks!!
Be aware that laws are generally counting in days. For example, if you would work in Switzerland in the morning and in Germany in the afternoon, it counts as 1 day CH and 1 day DE.
Thanks!! a good point indeed,
Also, remember to ask "25% of what". Weekly is different from monthly or per year, you probably wouldn't want to commute every other week to spend an extended 4-5-day "weekend" in Spain.
Definitely!
The idea is 25% at year. And the only way to make this "doable" is to stay 10-12 days watoking in CH and spend 5 days in Spain. Taking into account that i will almost lose 2 days per trip commuting.
Let's see next round.
But this will be the only way could work.
If not, I will need to decide to relocate the whole family to EastCH. And this decision is not as simple as when I was 25 and move to ZH...
Hopefully HR are aware of the consequences of permanent establishment being applied to the Swiss legal entity you would be contracted to I.e. that if the Spanish authorities are aware of you working 25% of your time in Spain, it would likely make that legal entity liable for Spanish corporation tax.
In our IT world, there are often restrictions in what systems can be accessed from within Switzerland and outside Switzerland. According to this restriction too, many of my colleagues have to plan their work days in Switzerland. I am not sure of what your area of work is, but this is an important factor to consider. The HR team are often not aware of this and you can always these questions in your interview round with the project.