Simplified versus ordinary billing procedure

Do you employ a nanny, cleaner or carer of the elderly in your household? In doing so, you agree to properly register this employer-employee relationship with the respective Cantonal compensation office of the place of work. As a private employer, you can choose between two different billing procedures when registering: the simplified and the ordinary billing procedure.

The simplified billing procedure

You can opt for the simplified billing procedure if the gross salary of your employer-employee relationship does not exceed CHF 1’837.50 per month or CHF 22’050.- per year. If you employ more than one employee, the total annual salary of all employees must not exceed CHF 56’400.-.

The following characteristics describe the simplified billing procedure: 

• The salary is taxed monthly together with the social security contributions.
• Employees benefit from a favourable flat tax rate of 5%.
• This flat-rate tax is deducted directly from the salary (and is usually shown as withholding tax in payroll accounting, which often leads to confusion).
• Employees do not have to file an additional tax declaration on this income.
• The nationality and residence status of the employee (Swiss citizens and persons with a C permit) do not play a role in this billing procedure, i.e. additional registration and billing with the tax authorities for foreign employees without a permanent residence permit is not required.
• Employers do not have to issue an annual wage statement for their employees, as this is issued directly by the compensation office (in the first quarter of the following year).

If the above-mentioned conditions do not apply to your employer-employee relationship, then you as the employer should choose the ordinary (normal) billing procedure at the competent Cantonal compensation office.

However, this procedure is not available for the following employees: Family members (spouses and children) employed by the employer’s company or cross-border commuters from the Principality of Liechtenstein and France.

Please also note that in most cantons a tax-free minimum income can be claimed. Therefore, if your domestic help earns less than this minimum income per year, she will be in a worse position for tax purposes if she chooses the simplified accounting procedure. Since with the simplified procedure, the flat-rate withholding tax is settled in any case.

The ordinary billing procedure

The following differences to the simplified billing procedure characterize this procedure:

• Employers must issue an annual wage statement for their employees.
• All social security contributions are settled with the compensation office, but not taxed. This means that employees do not benefit from a flat-rate tax rate of 5%.
• Employers must also register foreign employees without a permanent residence permit with the Cantonal tax authorities, declare their income to these authorities on a monthly or quarterly basis and settle withholding tax.

In summary, it can be said that although the same social security contributions are accounted for in both procedures, the simplified procedure is much “simpler” for employees subject to withholding tax. In the simplified procedure, the employment relationship only has to be settled with the compensation fund and not additionally with the tax authority.

In addition, all employees benefit from a flat-rate tax of 5% in the simplified procedure, with which their income is already fully taxed. Therefore, the simplified procedure is primarily aimed at short-term, small-scale employment relationships in private households and represents a federal measure to combat black labour.

However, if you do not wish to deal with these bureaucratic rules and details about the various billing procedures in the first place, we recommend our quitt. service. quitt. knows which procedure best fits your employer-employee relationship and will deal with all the necessary declarations and settlements with the relevant authorities!