I recently got made redundant and will get paid a salary for about 8mths plus a severance pay at the end but do not need to come into work . all in about a years pay.
I am looking for work but there is 95% chance it will be outside of switzerland .
I will be living in the UK for the most part whilst job hunting and am giving up my apartment in zug as the rent is ridiculous at 4.5kchf.

I have been told that i shouldn't deregester because i will lose my entitlement to the severance pay and notice pay if i leave switzerland and also my entitlement to unemployment pay should it come to that .

My tax rate on the income will also go from the lower zug rate to the higher zurich rate where my office is based if i deregester also .

1) should i try and stay registered if the above is true .
2) can i be registered here without being here, and can i register myself at a friends house even though i wont be staying there and it only has 1bedroom .

thanks

It should be OK to register at your friend's home.

Why not simply move to a cheaper apartment and stay in Zug?

You can claim up to about CHF 7'000 unemployment pay per month, it is an insurance you have paid for: the claim cannot be back dated, so apply soon.

http://www.treffpunkt-arbeit.ch/date...arbeitslos.pdf

I would not deregister. Ittigen has it right. Get a cheaper apartment
and collect the unemployment that you are entitled to.

If the severance pay is 8 months salary the OP will not be entitled to unemployment pay till after 8 months

yes you are right, i am not entitled to unemployment till march 2012, of course there is also the advantage of paying less tax by remaining registered in zug for the next 8 mths .

I am not sure about the obligation though. I must have an address to be registered to but i dont have to live there ? does that mean i can rent a hobby room for 300 chf and use that as an address ?
can there be a period when i move out of my place and dont have a swiss address..can i remain registered in this case?

You need a real address & live in habitable space, a hobby room does not count. You should rent a room in a flat.

1) yes, as all others said before: Stay registered
2) you are, technically speaking, still employed for the entire time of your gardening leave. Nobody cares if you are physically here, just as nobody cares if you go on a business trip. Keep at least a room in a shared apartment in Switzerland.
3) If the gardening leave comes to an end and you have for whatever reason not found a job... register for the RAV. Here comes the crucial part: You do not have to go there more than say three weeks before you want to get paid (so all the "go there ASAP" posts you find on here are uninformed - I know from personal experience). So while you do not need to go there in the first seven of the eight months... you will need to apply for jobs. At least ten a month - from the moment on that you know you will get unemployed - basically now. Keep a record of it and show it to the RAV when you go there.

I know this sounds like a lot of work, but in reality it isn't - pumping out the same electronic CV ten times does not really take a lot of time - even if you aren't looking for a job. So yes, even if you plan to spend the first four months on an adventure trip in Thailand - send some applications. With a little practice you will find ads that sound completely reasonabel for the RAV counsellor who isn't an IT specialist but you know that you won't get invited for an interview...