but can you drive someone else's non Swiss car in Switzerland if you are on their insurance?

I have a UK car as I am UK resident, and my GF who lives in Switzerland has a Swiss licence and is a named driver on my insurance...

She can drive my car in the UK and in Europe...

Can she drive my car in Swiss?

I can understand why you can't own a non Swiss car if you live in Swiss, but why would you not be allowed to drive someone else's car if you are insured?

She can't legally drive in your car in Switzerland if she is a Swiss resident with a Swiss licence

She can if you (the owner) are in the car (and are not a Swiss resident)!

Tom

Not so. When my friend from the UK who is not Swiss resident wanted to leave his fully UK legal and registered car here with me whislt he was on an extended trip. I enquired directly at the Strass' office in Zurich and was told flatly no, a Swiss resident cannot drive a non-CH plated car belonging to someone else. Bonkers rule but there you are, it's just 1 of many here.

Same as back in Ireland standard enough way for the government to tell its citizens that if they want to drive a car it had better be taxed locally!

The Swiss Customs have recently clarified the rules/issues of driving a foreign registered vehicle in CH. This was done apparently after erronous information was posted in some online forums, surely not the EF.

In sum, you may use your foreign registered vehicle for your "personal use" after having declared it at the border with form 15.30 and paid a 25 chf fee, for a period of two years (some exceptions) if you are a foreign worker, student, or intern. However, this is your personal use, and your girlfriend as a swiss resident and national would not have such a privilege.

See the following links:
--Swiss customs (douane) overview
http://www.ezv.admin.ch/zollinfo_pri...x.html?lang=en
--Foreign motor vehicle and motor vehicle drivers
http://www.ezv.admin.ch/zollinfo_pri...gpKfo&typ=.pdf
--Fact sheet on putting private motor vehicles and trailers into free circulation.
http://www.ezv.admin.ch/zollinfo_pri...gpKfo&typ=.pdf
--Law on transport (in French)
http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/0_631_24/app24.html

I couldn't find the highlighted text in the PDFs you linked to!

The issue is, and always has been:
1) Swiss registered cars only stay registered if there is valid insurance.
2) To have valid Swiss insurance you have to be registered in Switzerland
3) If you are registered in Switzerland you are not registered (IE domiciled) in another country.
4) If you not legally registered in another country you can't have valid insurance from that country
5) If you don't have valid insurance the car isn't insured
6) If the car isn't insured you are committing a road traffic offence

HOWEVER that is pretty much the case across the EU - but the UK is different. The UK has cars with "registered keepers" and not owners - the 2 are different things. Next up we have the issue of insurance. Some UK companies will insure a car if you live abroad - for 1 year. IE if your permenant base is not the UK. In that case the car is legally insured. The insurance company may also add a foreign national to the policy.

In that scenario a UK registered car, registered to a brit living in Switzerland (and registered here) would be driven legally. Further more, if the Brit added a Swiss friend to the policy as a NAMED driver - with the policy indicating they are registered in Switzerland - then that car has insurance.

The Swiss position is one of "The car is not insured - so is being driven illegally." If you are able to demonstrate, with the correct paperwork that this is not the case - then it is not an issue. The key is having the correct paperwork.

I fully understand why the default answer is "No" - because 99 times out of 100 - the owner of the car does not have valid insurance for the driver - and in fact, if you are coming from the UK, highly unlikely to have valid insurance for the car at all!!

The answer as gathered above is no. However I am wondering how you managed to get Swiss girl friend, in Switzerland, with Swiss address, to be a named driver on your UK car Insurance?

I'm a named driver on insurance in the UK - with a Swiss driving licence and a Swiss registered address. The vehicle is registered in my fathers name, to my fathers address and with him as the main driver - which he is.

This is indeed an issue if the driver is the one being insured. In many countries the car is insured (well the damage caused by the car, to be precise), does not matter who is driving it. There does not seem to be an exception for those cases though.

Which is the case here.

There are no named drivers on any of my policies.

Tom

By ringing them up and adding her to my insurance...

I am still UK resident even though I'm only there 2 weeks a year (I actually live in France/Spain/Switzerland for several months at a time currently in France until April), I am the registered keeper of the vehicle, it is registered to my UK address and my insurance covers Europe and Switzerland with a single trip limit of 180 days (so I go back twice a year, once at Easter and then in October, when I also get the MOT)

Until I get a permanent job in Swiss or France there is no point in changing my residency, and in Europe I can visit as long as I like, it's only Switzerland where I have to limit my trips to 90 days.

But anyway I digress... It is quite easy in the UK to add named drivers to your car insurance.

Got this reply from customs (same link as one that runningdeer already posted above)

Which company? QUICK TELL ME!

In my case LV

http://www.lv.com/insurance/

And yet the wording is clear "in principle" - which doens't mean it is illegal!!

It is clever wording - it is set to deliberately discourage the activity - and rightly so. HOWEVER "in principle" doesn't mean it can't happen.

I am not sure where you are paying taxes, however if your in any country more than 6 months you will be liable to taxes there or the country you spend the most days in, be very careful. You could be tax resident in more than 1 country.

Thanks, I do check this from time to time, I'm currently freelance and invoice with a UK address and pay taxes in the UK.

If I get a permanent employment and/or stay anywhere longer than 6 months then I'll change my residency, but until then there is no need.

I do also have Spanish NIE number and I can declare income for Spanish tax and even though I'm working in France currently I'm still paid in the UK in pounds, so there is no need to do anything with taxes in France at the moment and I've not earned anything in Switzerland... So is all covered...

The French may see it differently, the source of the revenue is not important. You are tracked by your mobile phone, so they can prove how much time you are in France should they decide to investigate . If you have loads of children French tax will be lower than the uk. As a single person it can be higher.

They know I'm working (and currently living) in France because I had to get licences and insurance, I'm not hiding anything...

If I don't go back to Basel in April I might look at getting residency in France but is not worth it for a 4 month contract.