Heidi › Cross-border workers
Who gets my taxes as a cross-border worker: France or Switzerland?
It is the canton you work in that decides, not your salary or your contract. Eight cantons tax you in France. Geneva and all the others withhold the tax at source, in Switzerland.
Either way, you file a French tax return. What changes is what you put on it — and above all whether you have already paid, or not yet.
The trap is not picking the wrong country: it is forgetting that under the agreement regime, nothing is deducted during the year. The French tax lands in one go, twelve to eighteen months after your first salary.
Tax you in France
Vaud, Valais, Neuchâtel, Jura, Bern, Solothurn, Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft.
The deadline for the certificate of residence
To be given to your employer every year, or they withhold tax at source.
The two regimes
| The 1983 agreement — 8 cantons | Withholding tax — Geneva and the others | |
|---|---|---|
| Who collects the tax | France | The Swiss canton |
| When you pay | The following year, in one go or in instalments | Every month, taken off your payslip |
| What the regime depends on | The certificate of tax residence, stamped by the French tax authorities | Nothing to provide: it is automatic |
| Tax return in France | Yes, the salary is taxed normally | Yes, with a tax credit that cancels out double taxation |
| Deductions available | Those of French law | None by default — unless you apply to the canton |
In return for the 1983 agreement, France pays Switzerland compensation of 4.5% of the gross pay concerned. That is an exchange between states: it changes nothing in what you pay.
If you work in one of the eight cantons
-
Hand in your certificate of residence before 1st January
It is stamped by your French tax office, then given to your Swiss employer. Without it, they have to withhold tax at source — and you then pay twice, until it is sorted out.
From the second year on, the authorities often send you a pre-filled version.
-
Declare your Swiss salary in France
It is added to your other income and follows the French tax scale, like a French salary.
-
Set the tax aside from the first month
Since nothing is deducted, it is up to you to put money by. An automatic transfer to a separate account on payday avoids the nasty surprise of the first year.
If you work in Geneva or another canton
The tax is withheld every month by your employer, following a tax scale code they enter from your family situation. That deduction is not final: it can be corrected.
Your salary certificate, issued at the end of January, shows the scale applied and the number of children counted. A wrong code — a marriage, a birth or a separation you did not report — makes you pay too much for a whole year.
You ask the canton to correct it, and the deadline is strict: 31 March for the year just ended.
There are two different procedures, and people often confuse them:
| Procedure | What it does | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|
| Correcting the tax scale | Fixes a wrong code or family situation | It opens up no deductions |
| Ordinary assessment | Lets you deduct the 3rd pillar, buying into a pension fund, actual expenses, loan interest and maintenance payments | It can increase your tax, because the rate is worked out on your household's combined income |
Access to ordinary assessment depends on quasi-resident status: it assumes your Swiss income makes up at least 90% of your household's gross worldwide income — including your partner's income in France.
You still declare your Geneva salary in France, on forms 2047 and 2042. It gives you a tax credit equal to the French tax on that income: in practice you are not taxed twice, but that salary pushes up the rate applied to your other French income.
In Geneva, do the sums on ordinary assessment before you apply for it. It opens up real deductions, but it also takes your partner's income into account: for a couple on two salaries, it often works against you.
And pay into your 3rd pillar before 31 December: by 2 January the year is lost, whatever you do afterwards.
What can tip you out of your regime
- Too much remote work. Beyond 40% of your annual time, the share worked remotely becomes taxable in France, whatever your canton.
- Too many nights in Switzerland. Cross-border worker status assumes you go home every day; beyond 45 nights a year outside France, it falls away.
- Moving house. Changing which side of the border you live on changes everything, and not just your tax.
The three most common mistakes
- Not setting money aside for French tax. In the eight cantons, nothing is deducted: the first bill arrives long afterwards, and it is the whole amount.
- Forgetting the certificate of residence. One year of forgetting, and your employer withholds tax at source while you also have to pay in France.
- Thinking you do not file in France. You always file, even when the tax has already been withheld in Switzerland.
Which regime for your canton, and how much should you set aside each month?
Heidi's cross-border mode works it out with your figures.
The questionnaire, the regime that applies, the thresholds and the deadlines are free. The figures — net pay, the full cascade, the cost of commuting — are in Heidi Plus.
Read next
- Retirement as a cross-border worker: AVS, the second pillar and the second right to choose
- Family allowances for cross-border workers: Switzerland or France?
- What happens to my second pillar when I leave my Swiss job?
- Unemployment as a cross-border worker: where to register, who pays and how much?
- G permit: conditions, going home and changing employer
- Quasi-resident status: who can apply, and by when?
- How much do you take home in Switzerland as a cross-border worker?
- How many days of remote work can I do without losing my cross-border worker status?
- Cross-border workers: LAMal or French cover? The right to choose explained
Sources
- Frontaliers Grand Est — The 1983 agreement, the eight cantons and the certificate of residence
- Tax for cross-border workers: withholding tax, correcting the scale, ordinary assessment and quasi-resident status
- République et canton de Genève — Agreements applying to remote work by cross-border workers
Page written by the Heidi team and updated on 13 November 2026. The tax rules depend on the canton you work in, your family situation and where you live. Cantonal deadlines can vary: the decision rests with the competent tax authority.