French cross-border commuter employees - Reporting requirements for Swiss employers as of 2025

Switzerland has concluded an additional protocol to the Double Tax Treaty (DTT) with France, which has been in force since 1January 2023. This agreement allows employees residing in France to perform teleworking employment activities in France up to 40% of their annual working time, without changing or jeopardizing their current cross-border commuter status and country of taxation of their employment income. The 40% limit also includes 10 days for temporary assignments (such as business trips) in France.

This agreement requires that specific data and information will have to be delivered by Swiss employers to the tax authorities in France in the future. A corresponding additional agreement to the DTT is expected to come into force on 1 January 2025. This means that at the latest at the beginning of 2026, Swiss employers will have to exchange data with France for the year 2025 relating to their French cross-border commuter employees.

It is important to note that the below information only relates to the tax treatment of the French cross-border commuter. Different rules apply from a social security perspective.  

Basically, if the teleworking activities in France(including 10 days for temporary assignments) do not exceed 40%, the tax status of the French cross-border commuter employees remain unchanged.

This means for those French resident employees working in the cantons which have signed the special cross-border commuter agreement with France (Agreement 1983), i.e. Basel-Stadt, Basel-Land, Bern, Solothurn, Jura, Neuchâtel, Vaud and Wallis, the employment income remains fully taxable in France. For those working as French cross-border commuter in any other canton, their employment income remains fully taxable in Switzerland.

If they exceed the limit, the employees lose the cross-border commuter status and the normal rules of the DTT will be applicable to them. This may lead to the situation where the Swiss employer may have to pay withholding taxes in France. As this is not legally permissible from a Swiss point of view, we recommend trying to avoid this situation and to keep track of the days and location worked by the French cross-border commuter employees.

Additionally, the following information about French cross-border commuter employees will need to be reported to the cantonal tax offices as of 1 January 2026:

- Name, first name, date of birth, postal code, place of residence and any other information to identify the person

- Calendar year in which the remuneration was earned

- Total amount of gross remuneration paid

- Number of home office days or home office quote in % (important - reporting is also required when the home office quota is 0% 

For the calculation of the home office quota, it will be necessary to record the following information during the year and document it in a calendar:

- Home office days

- Travel days/temporary assignments in France

- Travel days/temporary assignments in third countries (not CH or FR)

- Non-return days due to business reasons in Switzerland (for those subject to the Agreement 1983)

It should also be noted that employers must issue confirmation at the request of employees who leave the company during the year about the telework days and any travel days in France or in third countries and non-return days. This must already be implemented during 2025.

The relevant information to tax authorities will betransferred from the payroll accounting software. The corresponding ELMstandard 5.3 will be introduced shortly. If we support you with your payroll,we will collect the necessary information about home office days and temporaryassignments from you so that they can be maintained in the system andtransferred accordingly as part of the data gathering process.