Remote work usually involves working outside the normal office premises - at home or at any other location. Working hours are usually very flexible and can be freely arranged. In principle, with a completely remote position, you do not have to come to the company on-site at all.

It has to be distinguished from "working from home", which means working from a designated private environment.

There are no clear barriers, and the concepts are fluid.

The employee could be entitled to compensation if he works permanently outside the office premises and the employer does not provide him with a workplace.

Concretely, this means that the employer could have to pay for the furniture, the tech material required, or even the difference of rent for an additional room.

Cross-border taxes are a complicated topic. For individual cases, we advise you to speak with a tax expert. Reach out to us if you would like to be put in contact with our tax expert.

Double-taxation treaties provide specific rules and usually refer to the notion of residence. They are, however, usually not suited to remote work but can be interpreted by analogy, keeping in mind their purpose being to avoid double imposition.

As long as the employee remains resident in Switzerland and does not spend more than a defined number of days in one other country (e.g., 183 days for France and Germany), they will not, as a rule, become liable for taxes abroad.

In the absence of a double-taxation treaty, the employee might be taxed both in Switzerland and abroad. You can find more information on the double-taxation treaties concluded by Switzerland here.

If you employ (in particular) executives who regularly and continuously work in a cross-border home office, there is a risk that the home office situation will give rise to a permanent establishment abroad. This means that you run the risk of becoming liable to tax abroad on part of the business profits.

Normal employees, max 5 people --> kind of okay without subsidiary, but highly depends what they do. If they support the CH business, it is usually acceptable.

Generally, a Swiss employee performing up to 25% of their working time abroad will remain subject to Swiss social contributions rules.

Switzerland recently signed a multilateral agreement (notably with Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Spain; but not with France or Italy) allowing cross-border workers who are employed by a Swiss employer and who work remotely for a maximum of 49.9% of their total working hours from one of these countries to remain subject to Swiss social security. The agreement lists criteria and provides for some exceptions to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.

For countries outside of the EU/EFTA area, specific rules can be found in bilateral social security agreements. In general, the place-of-acquisition principle applies. Without such agreements, a double subordination could arise.

According to privacy laws, employers must ensure data security through appropriate technical and organizational measures. This includes:

Check out our remote work workshop package and book a free call with us to discuss the next steps.