Hi everyone,

Apologies if this is covered elsewhere - I couldn't find an answer through a basic search. Feel free to direct me to a relevant thread, if you know one.

I am non-EU citizen, married to an EU citizen (Germany), contemplating a move to Switzerland. She currently has a G permit (CdL) but will end her contract in December (not sure what happens after).

If there is a foreign (US) employer who is willing to contract me remotely, am I allowed to live and work in Switzerland? And if so, can this ONLY happen through a 'family regrouping', i.e. being linked to my spouse's work permit?

Thanks,
M.

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Only through a family reunification permit as your wife's dependent. For you yourself to get a permit, it has to be a Swiss employer, not one based outside the country. If you're going to work remotely, the Swiss would say you can do that right where you currently live and have no need or reason to move to Switzerland.

I believe that once you get your dependent B permit and are authorized to work in Switzerland you can register as an ANOBAG (employee of a non-resident employer) and work for US-based employer. Just keep in mind that if your wife's permit is not renewed for whatever reason (end of employment, etc) your permit would be cancelled as well and having a job with the US employer would not make any difference.

ANOBAG seems to be something to be avoided at all costs. Search the forum and decide for yourself.

I don't need to search the forum - I've been an ANOBAG for the past 5 years and there's nothing to be scared of. As a matter of fact, when it comes to employment expenses deductions it's even better than being employed by a Swiss company.

Can you elaborate further? As you can tell by Medea's post, a lot of people are not sure what's good or bad about ANOBAG so it might help others if you shared a bit more of your experience.

Why? People just don't understand and they want to avoid paying both employer and employee costs. That's the 'cost of doing business' if you want to work as an independent.

It's not really about good or bad, it's just a bit different and there's more footwork one has to undertake as ANOBAG compared to the 'ordinary' employment with a Swiss company where those things are done by HR and finance.
It's also not a matter of choice - if all your income comes from only 1 or 2 foreign contracts you cannot register as self-employed and must go the ANOBAG route.

Here's a summary of differences:

- AVS/AI/AC: with Swiss employer the company deducts employee's share from the salary and pays both its and employee's share to the relevant authority; as ANOBAG you're responsible for both parts and would normally be affiliated with the cantonal AVS office that also handles the self-employed. It's quite customary to make a provision in the employment contract for the company to cover its part but it's not mandatory - you're simply responsible for full contributions and whether you get half of it from your employer or not is entirely your business. It is better to separate salary and employer's social contributions in the contract because then your contribution levels are calculated on the salary part only. Of particular note is that as ANOBAG you have unemployment insurance (which will cost you 2.2% of your gross) and can claim the benefits if needed so this is definitely better than self-employment arrangement.
Since ANOBAG represent both the employer and the employee in the eyes of the AVS they’ll also have to pay into the family allocation fund that is normally employer's responsibility and the rate can vary greatly between cantons (1.5% - 3.5% of gross) so this needs to be taken into account when calculating how much to claim from the employer.

- Occupational accident insurance: you need to contract your own insurance and will be paying the whole premium while with a Swiss employer you'll only pay for non-occupational part. On the flip side for work-from-home jobs 90% of the premium is non-occupational portion anyway so not much difference in the cost to the employee.

- Pillar2 (required only with EU-based employers): you need to contract adequate insurance and will again likely get a worse deal than a group plan can offer. With non-EU employer you can skip P2 and contribute to Pillar3 up to the limits of self-employed (20% of income, capped at around 33K) or not contribute at all.


- Family allocations: if you have children entitled to family allocations you need to apply directly at the AVS office and get paid by them (monthly or quarterly, depending on the canton)



When it comes to taxation, since ANOBAG contracts usually mean remote work you can claim some part of the rent as home office expenses (depends on the canton) or declare some customer site in another canton as your habitual place of work and claim travel expenses and meals.