Flytel is a mobile operator. We do not give legal, tax or social security advice. This page reports what the official texts and bodies say, with their sources and the date on which we read them. It replaces neither these bodies nor advice on your own situation. If in doubt, the competent body is named in each section: it is the reference.
Where do you pay tax: in Switzerland or in France?
It depends on your employer’s canton. Eight cantons apply the Franco-Swiss agreement of 11 April 1983: Bern, Solothurn, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Vaud, Valais, Neuchâtel and Jura. If you work there, you pay your tax in France. Everywhere else, starting with Geneva, it is withheld at source in Switzerland (impôt à la source, withholding tax). For the eight cantons, the text of the agreement is clear:
“Salaries, wages and other similar remuneration received by cross-border workers shall be taxable only in the State of which they are residents, subject to financial compensation for the other State.”
Agreement of 11 April 1983, Article 1, text published by impots.gouv.fr (in French), read on 11 September 2026. Our translation.
In practice, if you work in Lausanne or Neuchâtel, you pay your tax like any employee in France, through the French tax return and French withholding. Geneva is not a party to this agreement: as everywhere outside the eight cantons, the general rule of the 1966 Franco-Swiss tax convention applies there, and your employer withholds tax from each salary.
The same agreement says who counts as a cross-border worker (frontalier): a person who “as a rule returns every day” to their country of residence (our translation). This daily return is the condition of the system, with a tolerance published by impots.gouv.fr (in French): at most 45 nights a year in Switzerland for a full-time job, fewer for a part-time job, and no more than three hours of travel a day, there and back. Otherwise, you must prove how often you return. Do you sleep in Switzerland during the week? That is a different situation, to discuss with your tax office.
In the eight cantons: the certificate to hand in every year
You give your employer a certificate of French tax residence (attestation de résidence fiscale): form 2041-AS, stamped by your tax office. The French rule is explicit:
“To avoid Swiss withholding tax, you must give your certificate of tax residence to your employer. With this document, your employer will not withhold Swiss tax at source.”
impots.gouv.fr, “Salariés en Suisse” (in French), the page for employees in Switzerland. Our translation.
The cantons, Neuchâtel (in French) for example, point out two details: the certificate goes to each employer and for each calendar year, before your first day of work, then before 1 January for the following years. If you forget it, your employer withholds Swiss tax from your salary.
You get it stamped online, through the secure messaging service of your impots.gouv.fr account. For the first two years, you do it manually. After that, a pre-filled certificate, the 2041-ASK, reaches you automatically if you fill in the 2047-SUISSE return online. And since your employer withholds nothing, the French tax authorities take a monthly instalment (acompte) from your bank account.
In Geneva: withheld at source, but declared in France all the same
In Geneva, tax leaves your salary before it even reaches your account. Many conclude that there is nothing left to do in France. That is wrong:
“If you are tax resident in France, you must declare all your income, whether from French or foreign sources, including income already taxed in Switzerland.”
impots.gouv.fr, “Salariés en Suisse”. Our translation.
You do not pay tax twice: France grants you a tax credit equal to the French tax on that salary. That salary does, however, count towards the rate applied to your other income, and the French return remains compulsory every year.
In practice, under both systems, you copy the lines of your Swiss salary certificate onto the 2047-SUISSE return (the French return for income from Switzerland), ticking your case: case 1 for the eight cantons of the 1983 agreement, case 2A for Geneva and the other cantons. The amounts then go onto your income tax return. According to impots.gouv.fr, staff paid by a Swiss public authority also fall under case 2A. For your 2025 salaries, the 2047-SUISSE form uses 1 Swiss franc = EUR 1.07. This average rate applies to salaries and regular expenses, not to exceptional income, according to impots.gouv.fr (in French).
Geneva also has quasi-resident status (quasi-résident). It lets you deduct your actual expenses instead of being taxed at the withholding tax scale. It is for cross-border workers at least 90% of whose worldwide income is taxable in Switzerland. The application is renewed every year, by 31 March of the following year at the latest. For a married couple, both spouses’ income is added together for the 90% test: a spouse taxed in France under the 1983 system can, on their own, bring the couple below 90%. The detailed conditions are on ge.ch (in French), which is the reference.
Teleworking: what happens above 40%?
Since 1 January 2026, the teleworking rule has been permanent. The amendment to the Franco-Swiss tax convention, in force since 24 July 2025, allows up to 40% of working time per calendar year teleworking from France, without changing how the salary is taxed. Up to this threshold, everything is taxed as if you were at the office.
Above the threshold, all your teleworking changes system. The canton of Geneva says so clearly (in French): the share of salary linked to teleworking then becomes taxable in France from the first day of teleworking, not just for the part above 40%. Temporary assignments outside Switzerland count towards this 40%, up to ten days a year. Employers have been tracking teleworking days since 1 January 2026, and will send the first rates in January 2027.
Below the threshold, your payslip does not change, but the two States share the tax: your employer’s State pays France 40% of the tax collected on the teleworked share, according to the State Secretariat for International Finance (in French). In Geneva, this sharing only covers the share between 15% and 40%, according to the canton.
For the eight cantons of the 1983 agreement, a separate mutual agreement (accord amiable), dated 22 December 2022 (in French), preserves the cross-border system in the same way up to 40% teleworking over the year, assignments included. It has no end date. Above that, you lose cross-border worker status: days worked in Switzerland are taxed there, teleworked days in France. The amendment and this agreement are two different texts, but they set the same 40% limit. Is your situation close to the threshold? Ask the tax authorities to decide.
The limits of this page
One point often quoted elsewhere could not be checked against an official source: the nationality conditions specific to public-sector jobs. We flag it rather than copy it. On this point, your tax office and the tax authority of the canton where you work are the reference.
