Hi Everyone! First time post.

Maybe someone can help me. I have been working in Switzerland for the past year yet live in Germany.

We have a baby coming pretty soon. Germany has a new "parent money" program that just started in January 2007. The mother or father can apply to have a certain amount of their salary for up to 14 months (I think it's 75%). During this time you can not work full time and you must stay at home with the child.

Does anybody here know anything about this? How does this work if you work in Switzerland? I am having problems finding answers to this!

Thanks!

Where do you pay tax?

Both places.

Nobody knows anything about this? Man, it seems like some people would be living in Germany yet working in Switzerland!

I think nobody knows anything about this because it's a German thing and everybody (well almost everybody) lives in Switzerland.

If you posted your question on a forum for people living in Germany on the other hand, it might well be a different story.

If you asked a question about WORKING in Switzerland we might have more info, but your question is actually about LIVING in Germany.

Eh, I am getting a bit desperate for information. I posted here instead of on a German forum because it's a special situation. I will post on some other forums as well.

I am actually about 2 minutes from the border into Switzerland. Many, many people live in Germany and France yet work in Basel over here. It's actually a very common situation.

I don't think you should pay tax in both locations. Surely that's not right - you're German resident and you should have a cross-border-worker permit.

I'd live over the Swiss border, work in Swizterland and go shopping in Germany. Good taxes and the benefits of both worlds.

You pay reduced Swiss tax...?

I don't know the details but try this calculator.

Down the bottom it has a drop down for living in one of the neighbouring countries.

Give it a shot and see what happens.

Edit: Or this one also

Hi,

We live in France and work in Switzerland and the Kindergeld is paid by your employer in Switzerland, and I suspect it's the same if you live in Germany. Are you sure you pay taxes in both countries ? I don't have legal knowledge about this but my guess is you just pay pension and some other deductibles in Switzerland ? and then your main tax payment is in Germany, i.e what we do. In France there's a department for everything related to money and families. I would go to your Gemeinde and ask for details about how this works and get the contact details for the family unit.

Is there a more local yahoo expat website because I'm sure that they would have more knowledge of this, e.g. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BaselExpat

Janey

Thanks for your replies. My question is mainly with this new "parent geld" program in Germany. It just started a month ago. It's very new so I'm not sure how it works. I don't know if I take my regular maternity leave in Switzerland and then apply or if I am even eligible. I was hoping someone might be in a similar situation.

We pay some Swiss income tax with most of the taxes going to Germany. I'm not sure exactly how it works since my husband is the one who files the taxes.

I live in France and work in Switzerland (a long time ago I lived in Germany (Rheinfelden) and worked in Basel. In between I lived and worked in Switzerland for over 12 years. Basically if its a German thing then its unlikely it would be available to your husband as he will be employed by a Swiss company under a Swiss contract of employment. This would include Swiss social insurances etc and unless there is a direct agreement on this issue then I guess it will only be available to workers employed in Germany. Logically the first stop for info should be the companies HR department. ash