I am wondering if this could work. I am an EU citizen and work as a programmer, reporting clinical trials. There is a shift in the industry over to work-from-home jobs. So if I got a permanent work-from-home UK job, where the company has no Swiss office, and lived and worked in Switzerland, then who would the employer pay employer's National Insurance to? The more I think about it, the more complicated it seems.

As far as I am aware, you can only work for the UK company for a maximum of three months. The way to do it would be to set up a business here or work as a consultant, which will cost. The issue which may come up with imigration is, why are you in Switzerland? Family, business etc. Basically both the employer and the employee must pay national insurance AHV, but if you are employeed under a UK contract then its unlikely that 1: The employer will pay it, 2: You will qualify for AHV unless you set up your own business. The problem that you have as a contractor is that you only have one customer, ie your employer, so it is difficult to qualify for the AHV, on a self employeed basis. Then if working as a contractor, you have to pay the employers and employees part of the AHV. This is how I understand it, but I may be wrong.

You can go down the route of a sole trader - If the work you are doing is purely for an overseas company and you have no business activity in CH.



You are probably better finding a job with a Swiss company.

Telandy - I am under the impression that being self employed and being a sole trader were the same thing? What is the difference?

Would contracting to the UK company be an option? If the UK company concerned would employ you on a long term contract basis then you could setup your Swiss GmBH company, live in Switzerland and claim all the benefits Richard has listed in his thread on the opening a Swiss company.

In this case the UK company would not have to pay any UK NI while employing you at all. An additional incentive for them.

I am not an expert, but have gone through a few hurdles with a few companies. A sole trader has to have more than three customers, ie a window cleaner. If this is not the case then you have to go the route of a GmbH or AG. The problem with this is that as an employer and employee you have to pay the Insurance contributions AHV twice, which on 10K a month is roughly 2K (1K + 1K), so your income has just dropped 20% not taking into consideration tax. There is a loophole and its that you work purely for an overseas company and the overseas company subcontracts work to you. I do believe you can set up as sole trader in this way and pay only one contribution.