Living in CH but working in the US

Hi All - wanted to find out more about this scenario.

1. Here's on family reunion prg with spouse

2. Company in the US wants to continue employment working out of CH (will be working us hours)

3. Will be paid in USD in US

Any legal issues with this - i.e. is CH ok with this? Any special permit needed for me?

thanks again for an awesome forum!

What is your citizenship.. If you are a US citizen there is no problems. I do know of one person who does it.

Yep - US citizen

I dont see any problem with this. I have a friend of mine who is a US citizen and is here on a family reunion. He works for the US company and has no work related connection to any company in CH . He has been here for more than 5 years now.

I don't think that is correct, the swiss taxman will want his cut otherwise we'd all be sat here but working for a monaco company and being paid in monaco, and paying no tax at all.

indeed you'd have to declare your income to the Swiss taxman. And also the IRS.

you also need to ensure that social contributions in Switzelrand are being paid, I'd say. Consult a professional who deals with this. It's for the best.

I agree but he was asking about the legality of doing what he was asked to do by his emplpoyer and my answer was only specific to his quesion. Of course he would have to pay taxes, insurances and other incidental expenses here in switzerland

My question was around work permits really - not taxes.

Hi ! Did you find answer for your question ? I have exactly the same intentions. Thanks a lot in advance!

Tax = Work permit. No permit, no work. You MUST have a permit regardless of whether the employer is Swiss-domiciled or not (art. 11.al. 1 AuG). Stuff like "i know a guy who has been doing it for years" doesn't fly very high a in court of law.

True, but he is here on a family reunion program and he should have a permit. All what has been said is that he can work here for the US domiciled company.

"Can" is a dangerous word.

You'll find working for a foreign, non-domiciled employer is not exactly straightforward - it's not just a matter of "oh, i have a permit, i'm good to go".

One way is to set up a GmbH or self-employed (don't know if this is possible, I suspect not, but maybe if the company isn't in CH), and have a B2B relationship with your former employer. They pay you gross, you handle all taxation and social contribution issues locally.

I have worked remotely for a UK client via my Swiss GmbH.

Please see this article:

http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/142_20/a46.html

So apparently - this is not straight forward. People with residence permit can involve in self employment. Not sure what constitutes "residence" permit.

You're B/C/L permit is the residence permit. But not all residence permits allow you to be self employed. Which one do you have? If it's a B then you can be self employed. If it's an L, it's more difficult.