Remote job with US while living in Switzerland

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1
Hi, I am thinking to switch to a Remote first job but keep living in switzerland.

I have found offers mostly from the US that would satisfy my needs, but I am not sure what needs to happen to hold a job like this.

These companies do not have legal entities in switzerland so the job would be a contracting job, but i am not familiar with what are the legal requirements to do so. Do I need to start a company? I have read that AGs are not suitable if you have only 1 client. Can somebody please give me some pointers for this

Deeply appreciated

2
you probably can become an SP, fundamentally self-employed. You might need a payroll provider to help you pay the deductions and insurances here.

maybe someone knows more details but have a bump and welcome to the forum, possibly sleep-ins and lots of late evenings....

3
was in a similar situation and used a swiss umbrella /payroll company, thing is that they will bill the US company

4
Welcome to the Forum. You don't say what your nationality is or what permit you hold. These things might impact your ability to be self employed.

5
I'm in the same situation, as EU citizen with B permit valid until 2023.

- Does anyone have experience in such situation?

- Any umbrella company to recommend?

- Is there any difference to set up the company in different cantons? (costs / taxes)

Thank you!

6
Yes, I’ve been in that situation. I went through payroll company (Helvetic), who did invoice the client and provided me work contract, so Im covered as EU/EFTA B permit holder. All went well, no complains.

7
Sorry for hijacking this thread. How about third-world citizens (non-eu, non-swiss)? Would it be possible to do remote jobs while living in Switzerland?

8
I recently started a thread about this - although for a Swiss citizen.

Even so, I think LtSoftDrink's advice, there (in post 2), may probably also apply, as a starting point, even for other nationalities.

https://www.englishforum.ch/employme...-register.html

9
With AG/GmbH you don't really need more than one client. From my experience this is when you become self-employeed, and the gov want you to continue to pay more taxes.

With AG/GmbH you can have no client at all when you starts. There is one more advantage of starting an AG or GmbH, you can be employed at multiple companies. If you start a SP, you can not be employed by any other companies, which is bad for you if you indeed want to create one company for each of your client. Sometimes you need isolation so that your liability is really limited.

Guys who have been using umbrella companies such as helvetia, how is your experience? What about taxes, how much do you save or loss?

To operate an AG/GmbH with low cost, I recommend a mail scanning service and domecile at below 2000 CHF / year and using Bexio (< 500 CHF per year) for accounting. Tax filing with accountant checking can be around 2000 CHF per year.

10
3rd country person can do for sure. Find a partner and start AG/GmbH. Make sure you setup shareholder's agreements in a good way to reduce future risks.

11
The term is "third country".

Depends on your permit. With an unrestricted B or a C permit - fine. ANOBAG is one route. You could set up a GmbH/Sarl and operate as a contractor employed by your company. I did this for many years, with clients in Switzerland, Germany and the UK.

Without the right permit however, you cannot move here to work.

12
I prefer to stay formally employed to save on taxes (two main reasons - would I potentially become unemployed, it will be simpler to get the benefits, and as I’m still on B permit, continuous employment might look better for the immigration guys).

Anyway, in the last contract, I told what I want to get monthly, and the client managed with Helvetic the details. Not usual arrangement I guess

13
This is not true. I am employed by a local swiss employer and I am also self-employed through my einzelfirma (nebenberuf). I have an accountant who files my tax returns, I get my salary statement from my swiss employer and I also submit simple income/expense statements. Everything is added together and the final tax is calculated.

The only problem that I had is that since I had U.S. based clients, insurance companies would refuse to insure me.