Hi All!

I currently run a Ltd company in the UK & I have an employee (who lives here) who is engaged to marry a German who lives & works in Switzerland.

I would like her to continue working with us - so the suggestion has been made that she works remotely for us - based in Lugano.

How do i legally set her up to work remotely over there... whilst doing her uk work.

I also think that it would be advantageous for us to have an office in Lugano - and therefore it would mean the expansion of our company to CH with our employee initially employed to do the exact same work she does from the UK - but could lead to more EU centric projects.

The business is PR, Marketing and communications.

Has anyone experience of this? help.. suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

chris

I think you have to decide what your employee can do in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. Does she speak fluent Italian and can really expand you presence here? Or will she do whatever she does behind a desk in the UK, but in Teccino?

If it basically the latter, the easiest way is for her to register as self-employed (assuming she is an EU citizen). This may be a problem with you as her only 'client'. Then she invoices you for her work. This means she covers her own tax and socially contributions locally and all you do is pay her bills...

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Hi

She doesn't speak italian - but the industry we are in (fashion, sports) have a big presence in Lugano and English is the spoken language.

Initially yes - she would be doing her UK work over there... but, as our company expands (as it currently is) to hold more contracts based on supplying service to all of europe.

she is an EU citizen.

we currently get paid for one contract from a Sarl in Lugano to UK.. so it may be better to get this paid CH to CH?

any of this help?

It comes down to how much revenue you see this generating - and I guess this should be extra revenue, above what you already receive from the area. If this is substantial then forming a company and the CHF20,000 plus costs (see other posts here on this) is the route to go. In addition you would need some sort of office premises to do this properly.

In all that route would require not insubstantial financing and lawyers.

Perhaps the self-employed route looks more realistic? I have no idea...

we do have several companies here in the UK - so we could get her to invoice us to different companies - getting round the problem of invoicing to a single company?

Anyone know the work permit situation with all this?

She won't be issued work related permit as the company is not based in CH.

The only way i could think of is, she can invoice you as external consultant, then she declares the revenue at the end of the year.

The trick is she's getting paid from outside CH, so she won't have:

Unemployment insurance
Social security (AVS)
Tax levied at source

Instead, she will have to pay taxes as this is considered fortune at the end of the year.

I'm not a lawyer or recruitment expert but this was my personal situation whenever i worked for international based clients in CH.

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Hi Calfo

Maybe some of the comments on this similar thread may help?

It's not relevant. Her permit will come from her husband.



She will pay those herself as a self employed person. "Fortune" has nothing to do with it.



It's not a problem to be self employed & have only one client if the client is outside of CH. Anyway, there has to be a way where she can still be employed by the UK company... which would probably be best for her. More investigation is needed.

That's exactly what i said, it's not WORK related permit, but she can have it for any other reason.

That's not what i were told when i worked freelance for OZ / UK companies, i were told by the taxation dept in Geneva, that as the money is earned from outside CH, it's not applicable to employment related taxes / AVS, it's considered as fortune at the end of the year.

You pay employment / AVS if you are working and paid in CH.

That's her best bet, otherwise what she earns what she gets with no future.

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It's still not relevant as there is no separate WORK permit. There is only one permit, the residency permit and as an EU national she has all the rights to work. No WORK permit.


Income that you earn outside is not considered as fortune. Fortune is taxed at like 0.1% or something. It will be taxed as just what it is, income. She won't get "taxed at source" obviously. She has to make a declaration at the end of the year like the Swiss.

She probably won't have to pay UNemployment insurance as she won't qualify for the scheme. She could set up an AVS account. We pay our AVS and we don't even live there.

ETA: I'm still not sure on the AVS thing. All other sources I've read say you need to pay AVS. Anyone else weigh in on this?

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I cannot help you on the complicated legal issues, BUT something I really CAN tell you and that is that she ought to take an Italian language course after arriving in Lugano. I know what "English is the spoken language" in Ticino and Lombardia really means ! You may have realized that out of 100 people those you have on the phone are always out of the same dozen ! Fashion+Sports in that area is most thoroughly Italian speaking in reality

Does anyone know if you can get a residency permit if you are engaged to be married... or do you HAVE to be married to claim residency via a spouse?

calfo

After all the looking around and working remotely for a UK company, MY best option as the employee was to have them employ me with a Swiss middle company. This allows me to enter the Swiss employment system, protect by local laws, etc, rather than working as a contractor with no benefits or unemployment protection.

So I work for my UK company through Accurity in Kloten. They even got me my social security number here.

I am a US citizen married to a EU native and have a 5-year B permit.

Hope this helps.

Yes, you do need to be married. The best you can get is a 3 month visa to prepare for marriage, but that doesn't allow you to work and is really a temporary thing.

Give up on it and just get married. We tried to do it without it as we wanted to wait for our big wedding to make it official, but it is seriously not worth the pain. We eventually gave up and it ended up making the process take longer in the end.

No. Not as an EU citizen s/he doesn't.

probably the easiest is to continue to employ her from your UK company. although it might be cleaner to set up a CH company and employ her from there.

EDIT: the employee would then WORK for the CH company and her WORK will be recharged/invoiced to the UK company.

Correct only a non EU/EEA/Swiss citizen needs to marry the Swiss/EU/EEA citizen to derive residence and quotaless work permit rights in CH.

Otherwise the usual "travel only with no working restrictions" for up to 3 months apply until married. Up to 3 months will depend on one's nationality and the corresponding Passport/ID/Visa requirements to enter Switzerland/Schengen that apply to your nationality and your Schengen residence permit status (if any). These are summarized here: http://www.bfm.admin.ch/bfm/en/home/..._einreise.html