Cross-border glossary
The vocabulary you meet when you live in France and work in Switzerland, defined once and linked to the guide that explains it properly. Nothing here states a rate or a deadline — those belong next to the source that backs them.
- Frontier workerfrontalier, Grenzgänger
Someone who works in one country and returns to their home in another, in principle on every working day. The status is what most of the France–Switzerland rules attach to, and losing it changes where you are taxed and insured.
- G permitpermis G, G-Bewilligung
The Swiss permit issued to a cross-border worker: it authorises employment in Switzerland while you live abroad. It is tied to an employer and a canton, and changes to either have to be reported.
- AHV / AVSAlters- und Hinterlassenenversicherung, assurance-vieillesse et survivants
Swiss state pension insurance, the first of the three pillars. The employee contribution is deducted from the first franc of salary with no upper limit.
- IV / AIInvalidenversicherung, assurance-invalidité
Swiss disability insurance. It is deducted together with the state pension and income-compensation schemes as one combined line on a payslip.
- EO / APGErwerbsersatzordnung, allocations pour perte de gain
Swiss income-compensation insurance, which replaces earnings during military service and parental leave. Deducted alongside the pension and disability schemes.
- ALV / ACArbeitslosenversicherung, assurance-chômage
Swiss unemployment insurance. Unlike the pension schemes it applies only up to an annual salary ceiling, so the deduction stops once you pass it.
- LPP / BVGprévoyance professionnelle, berufliche Vorsorge
Occupational pension, Switzerland's second pillar. There is no standard rate: every employer's plan differs, so the only reliable figure is the one on your own payslip or plan document.
- LAMal / KVGloi sur l'assurance-maladie, Krankenversicherungsgesetz
The Swiss law on compulsory health insurance. Premiums for people insured in Switzerland but resident in the EU are published in a separate country-based table.
- Right of optiondroit d'option
The one-time choice a France-resident cross-border worker makes between Swiss and French health cover. It has a deadline that starts running from the beginning of the Swiss insurance obligation, and it is not normally reversible.
- CMUcouverture maladie universelle
The French public health cover a frontier worker can choose instead of Swiss insurance. The contribution is assessed on income rather than charged as a flat premium per person.
- Withholding tax at sourceQuellensteuer, impôt à la source
Income tax an employer deducts directly from Swiss pay. Most Swiss salary calculators apply it — but a Basel frontier worker taxed in France usually has nothing withheld in Switzerland, and receives a French bill separately instead.
- ECB reference rate
The euro foreign-exchange reference rate published by the European Central Bank. It is the honest midpoint used to convert a Swiss salary for comparison, and not a rate you can actually transact at.