Moin folks!

Its great to have an english forum to deal with swiss issues

I just joined the forum, and hopefully someone can kindly bare with my questions and answer a couple

1) Applying for the short-term L work permit

I want to work for my company from Swiss for about 4 months during May to Sept 2006. They are one of the major computer firms in the US, and have an office in Zuerich, so I'll be working there.

I saw online that there are some work-permit quotas, and I'm an Indian citizen, who has been studying/working in the US for some time. Does anyone know where I can find out if they still have the quota open for L permits? Or, perhaps even how hard it is to get one of them.

I would be planning to apply for my visa in San Francisco anytime soon, since they do state it takes about 6-8 weeks to process the applications.

2) Taxes
Another concern I have is, how do the taxes apply for me? I have seen another thread here which states, some of the tax refunds take upto 3 years to process!! ?? Is this true for the L permit as well? I also haven't found anyway to figure how much taxes I would be paying in total on my 4-month salary in Swiss. Can someone please suggest a tax calculator or any such resource which I might find helpful to figure my earning range?

3) Insurance
I understand Swiss has a compulsary health insurance policy. Don't employers pay for this like they do here in the US? I seen a bunch of posts about people trying to figure which insurance is better

4) Drivers license
Finally, can people with US drivers license drive around in Swiss? I _absolutely_ love driving I have a US car/motorcycle permit, and would like to buy a car and a motorbike (~600cc) once i get to Swiss. I am hoping i dont need to go thru the entire Swiss drivers test thing to be allowed to drive a car or bike in Swiss

Thanks a lot for the help.
Happy new year!