Exactio – Services

Exactio – tailored services for you and your business

Exactio Ltd is a consulting company providing Swiss and international payroll, social security, individual tax and global mobility services to local and multinational organisations, as well as individuals. We tailor our services to your needs and provide customized services to ensure you meet your goals.

International shadow and Swiss payroll services to support your Swiss employer reporting obligations

Solid payroll governance and processes help companies eliminate their compliance risks, achieve control of staff costs and optimize their tax and social security position. In turn, this creates goodwill with both your employees and the tax authorities, reducing the risks of audits with potential penalties and interest payments when one does not meet the legal requirements. Furthermore, transparent processes develop trust in payroll reporting and compensation delivery with employees. We can help you!

International shadow and Swiss payroll

We will work with you to establish all the required processes to obtain the relevant information for the Swiss payroll tax and social security. We will operate the monthly payroll, ensuring correct calculation of all social security, insurance and payroll taxes and issuing instructions for the relevant payments. In addition to preparing the monthly payslips, we will issue the monthly and annual compensation summaries and ensure the timely reporting of the Swiss payroll tax and annual salary statements for your employees.

Health-checks of Swiss payroll

If you operate an in-house payroll, we will review your payroll processes, your payroll set-up and your reported compensation and match this with the Swiss reporting requirements. We will summarize our findings in a transparent report and provide suggestions for rectification and optimization of your payroll. We may also support you with the implementation of the required changes to ensure you meet all Swiss legal requirements on a forward-looking basis.

Payroll tax audit support

Prior to a payroll tax audit, we will review your compensation reporting processes and propose adjustments, where required. We will also assist you in gathering the necessary documentation and will support you in responding to payroll tax audit requests.

Negotiations of payroll tax rulings

Do you want to optimize your payroll tax reporting requirements? We will support you in discussing a ruling with the tax authorities to optimize your administrative payroll processes for your Swiss and international employees, agreeing on Expense Manuals and tax reliefs based on the legal Swiss tax framework.

Global compensation advice

We will review your international compensation processes and propose ways to optimize them with the goal of providing organizational and administrative relief, enhanced transparency, optimized compliance, and cost optimization.

Remote working - Permanent establishment risks for employers in Switzerland

Considerations for employers when allowing their Swiss based employees to work remotely from home

Introduction of the Economic Employer principle in Switzerland

Together with the new source tax regulations, the Circular Letter 45 issued by the Federal Tax Administration came into force on 1 January 2021, which focuses on the harmonisation of the withholding tax collection process as well as the introduction of the economic employer principle across Switzerland.

Tailored Swiss and international social security support for you and your mobile employees

Social security compliance and reporting are just as important and complex as tax reporting. While most companies know where payroll taxes are due, social security compliance is often not as straightforward. For example, did you know that social security contributions may be due in your employee’s country of residence rather than in the country where you as an employer are domiciled? How do you manage the social security obligation for your employee in Switzerland when you do not have an entity or legal presence here? Or have you considered whether you have a social security reporting obligation in another country for your international board members? We can help ensure compliance and create transparency around the complex Swiss and international rules regarding social security.

Obligations for foreign companies employing individuals in Switzerland – ANobAG scheme

How do you deal with the employer compliance obligations for your employees in Switzerland, ranging from immigration and labour law to tax, payroll, social security, and pensions, when you do not have a legal entity here? The Swiss ANobAG (‘Arbeitnehmer ohne beitragspflichtigen Arbeitgeber’) scheme is designed for Swiss employees of foreign companies without a presence in Switzerland. We can assist you and your employee with all the formalities required to work in a compliant manner in Switzerland. Your employee will be covered by the mandatory Swiss system for pension, unemployment, disability, and accident insurance while being directly employed by the company abroad.

Social security audit support

In Switzerland, social security audits typically happen at intervals of three to four years. Consequently, it is not a question of “if” but “when” a company operating in Switzerland is audited. We prepare detailed reviews of all social security processes and employer reporting for both your Swiss and international employees and summarize our findings in a report with our recommendations for corrections and proposals for optimization.

Social security governance and reporting

We integrate the social security reporting for your Swiss and international employees in the ordinary payroll process, ensuring correct and timely reporting and payment of Swiss social security and insurance contributions due. Both the employer and the employee contributions are integrated into the compensation summaries as well as the annual salary certificates for the employees.

Non-executive directors/Board members

We advise you and your international non-executive directors or board members about their Swiss and international social security situation. Where relevant, we will assist them in obtaining the relevant A1 or Certificate of Coverage (CoC) forms. Furthermore, we advise you on your employer obligations and assist you in building up processes, when your non-executive directors or board members either become or are subject to social security in another country.

Governance of business travelers and mobile employees

We advise you on the social security situation for your mobile employees and assist you in establishing adequate processes to avoid non-compliant situations for you and your employees. It is important that the social security status of mobile employees is pre-assessed before the employee travels abroad, as post-fact situations may be difficult to correct. This may lead to employer non-compliance and potentially loss of benefits for your employees. We assist in obtaining the relevant A1-forms and other certificates between Switzerland and EU/EEA countries, as well as CoC forms for moves to other treaty countries.

Remote working - Permanent establishment risks for employers in Switzerland

Considerations for employers when allowing their Swiss based employees to work remotely from home

Operating in a country different from the headquarters location

What are the considerations and potential pitfalls as the employer?

Tailored Swiss tax support for your mobile employees

Today, taxes are a complex matter, even in the simplest of situations. Crossing borders adds to the complexity. Hence, many companies choose to offer tailored tax support to their mobile employees, such as business travelers, international local hires, assignees, cross border workers, remote workers and board members, so that they can handle their Swiss tax compliance. We can provide a wide range of individual tax services to your employees depending on the tax support package you want to offer them. We are also able to help you define which tax services are needed by your mobile employees!

Tax consultation briefing

Employees who have just moved to Switzerland or who have taken on a position with a Swiss employer may find themselves wondering about the Swiss tax and social security system, filing obligations and what to look out for when traveling internationally. We can answer their questions in a Swiss tax briefing meeting.

Tax return preparation

We prepare the Swiss tax return declaration which the employee must file annually, considering all applicable tax deductions, cantonal requirements, regulatory changes and international tax agreements.

Quasi-resident tax treatment

For non-resident employees whose income is mainly taxed in Switzerland, we prepare quasi-resident tax returns to ensure that any potential tax deductions are applied and benefited from when working in Switzerland but residing abroad.

Tax notice/assessment review

We review and support your mobile employees in responding to any tax notice and tax assessments they receive from the tax authorities. This ensures that the Swiss tax authorities have correctly assessed your employees. In the event of errors, we assist your employees in appealing their Swiss tax assessment.

Other tax services

Depending on the needs of your mobile employees, we provide them with additional tax advisory services based on an open and transparent agreement between you and your employees.

Swiss taxes at a glance

A tax guide for foreigners and expats

Remote working - Permanent establishment risks for employers in Switzerland

Considerations for employers when allowing their Swiss based employees to work remotely from home

Global mobility services for companies with mobile employees

All companies with internationally mobile employees face a wide range of challenges and must consider many international requirements. Mobile employees in today’s environment are far from limited to the classic assignee transparently moving between two countries. Today the term “mobile employees” covers irregular and regular business travelers, cross-border workers including Frontaliers and Grenzgänger, commuter assignees and commuter employees, remote workers, international local hires, international board members and, of course, the classic short- and long-term assignees. Are you ready to handle them all? Our Global Mobility services cover various areas to offer end-to-end solutions.

Mobility policies and guidelines

We will work with you to analyse your need for mobility policies and guidelines, which will assist your organization to handle your mobile employees. We can also assist you in benchmarking and document how you may want your staff to be remunerated during their international duties. We may also help you to develop and document the processes to apply before, during and after an employee has been abroad in the interest of your business.

Tax and social security policies

Many mobility policies are not clear or are very vague about how to deal with the complex matters of tax and social security when an employee is crossing borders. This may be both a cost issue and a benefits issue, i.e. would one of your employees lose out on a pension benefit just because the set-up during a stay abroad was not correctly handled? We help you draft tailored tax and social security policies, creating transparency in terms of costs for your business and entitlements for your employees.

International employer process and compliance optimization

Do you want to ensure that you are optimized from a cost and compliance perspective and thereby avoid unpleasant surprises? We assist companies in establishing and documenting their international withholding and reporting obligations while, at the same time, creating upfront transparency about their projected costs for assignments or other cross-border employment situations. We will also work with their relevant stakeholders from HR, finance, and payroll to understand how they can support compliant and transparent processes in an efficient way through tailored trainings.

Remote working - Permanent establishment risks for employers in Switzerland

Considerations for employers when allowing their Swiss based employees to work remotely from home

Introduction of the Economic Employer principle in Switzerland

Whether you need payroll, social security, tax or global mobility support, we are the right partner. Our extensive experience in all these technical areas and our hands-on approach, ensure that you and your employees get what you need.

Get in touch with us and let’s talk about what we can do to make sure you and your employees are compliant!