Strange swiss situation

Hello,
I’m a young Swiss who lives all year round in his converted van. I no longer live in this country, but I have a tax address in Geneva. I work there for two months a year and am taxed at source, which means that I apparently no longer have to file a tax return in any country.
What’s more, I’d like to start investing some of my savings, which are gathering dust in my bank account, in the international stock market.
How do these new investments affect my situation? Do I have to declare them? And to whom?
I’d like to thank you warmly for the time you’ve spent reading this and for any answers you may have given me, and wish you all the best for the future.

Sorry, not helping here, just satisfying my curiosity: you’re taxed at source as a Swiss?

Yes I am :wink: because I took out my citizenship from Switzerland.

I guess you’ll need to decide, if you regularly stay in Switzerland/have family there that might be where your center of life is.

In any case your financial institutions will want you to declare a tax residence, and they’ll share that data with the relevant tax authorities (unless you pick a swiss broker they won’t share with the swiss authorities, but then you’ll have a 30% at source withholding which is a good incentive to declare it)

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Thank you so much for your thoughts, it’s the logical path I’ve been missing!
I’d like to take this opportunity to ask you if any brokers stand out in Switzerland. We were thinking of Trade Republic but for the moment, Switzerland is not one of the eligible countries. Is Interactive Brokers a good option?
Have a nice evening!

Seriously! I filed a special final tax return that covered the beginning of the year until my departure, just like for a death.
(Remplir la déclaration d'impôt en de cas départ ou de décès | ge.ch)
From that point on, taxation is done automatically at source, freeing me from the obligation to fill out a new return every year (unless there’s a change like the one mentioned in my question).

Not really, they assumed you took residence elsewhere, if you haven’t but Geneva is your most stable place it might still be your fiscal residence.

Maybe ask the tax office about your situation, they’ll be able to advise.

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Meaning you renounced it?

To citizenship? yep :slight_smile:

So you have (at least) a second citizenship I guess ?

You pay taxes in CH, so you probably have to pay also Health insurance. I wonder what happens if you go to a doctor. Stay healthy!

Fair enough. I only know people who want to get get citizenship as opposed to the other way, which is renouncing it.

Hello and sorry for the confusion. English is not my mother tongue. I haven’t lost my Swiss citizenship, I’m still a Swiss citizen and don’t have another one. However, my papers have been withdrawn from the population office. I did this mainly to avoid the obligation of being insured in Switzerland. I now have a much cheaper international insurance policy, which covers me wherever I go (experiments done :wink:
Thank you all for your answers!

That’s weird they accepted it, it’s explicitly mentioned as not being allowed: Touristes à l’étranger et globe-trotters

btw make sure to read the fine print, most international insurance assume you’re insured in your home country, and will send you back there in case of bigger issue. If that does happen, you might face a hefty bill from a swiss insurance (I assume they’d ask you to cover the missing years)

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Yeah, I am not sure why it worked but I am not alone in this situation.
I am assured by Safetywing complete that covers everything I need :wink:

I see and you checked with them that they’re happy? (It contradicts everything about how it works for globe trotter, imo it’s a huge risk especially if you regularly come back to CH, I really wouldn’t want to risk the huge bill that could arrive)

(Btw the insurance looks nice, but I’d be concerned about what happens if you use it for something serious, they could deny you on the following year …)

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You’re situation is not that unique. I know a number of Swiss who have lived that way for decades.

The tax status of globetrotters is an ongoing grey area. However, it is obviously much more advantageous for globetrotters to take up tax residence in a country with low or no tax for people in your bracket, when possible. That rules out the risk of encountering tax-related problems in the future.

Claiming your Swiss old-age pension when the time comes can also be problematic because they will ask for records from countries where you contributed to social security. The purpose of the inquiry is to determine whether you are eligible for foreign pension which may change your obligations with regards to social security (e.g. you may be subject to mandatory health insurance in a different country, etc.).

Health insurance is the least of your concerns. You can always return to Switzerland, in which case you can/must get compulsory Swiss health insurance.

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That’s why they want you to continue contributing until you show you have a place of residence, because then you’re making people pay for you when you never contributed while you were young/healthy and then come back when you have issues.

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