Umbrella Company Living abroad

[ethel]

Hi there
I am currently living abroad and I might have the opportunity to do some remote work with UK company but working from Switzerland.
I am very ignorant on this field and I will appreciate any input.
The recruiters told me I will be pay through an umbrella company....so my questions are....
Is it possible to have an umbrella company in uk and working from abroad? How does this work?
To say I have a UK account and that I live in Switzerland at the moment, the job field is Psychology so will be to do online therapy.

TIA

[NotAllThere]

You have to pay tax and social contributions in Switzerland, as that is where you live. For this reason alone a UK brolly is not an option. The agency will have to pay you your fees gross.

Here are some ways you can work for a UK organisation from Switzerland.

1. The UK agency employ you, but pay you gross. You then deduct Swiss tax and social contributions, via ANOBAG (look it up, try englishforum.ch, it's well discused there).
2. The UK agency treat you as a foreign company. You set up yourself as self-employed. They pay you gross, you account for taxes etc. same as you would if you were being paid as a self-employed person in Switzerland.
3. The UK agency treat you as a foreign company, but you set up a GmbH/Sarl and become an employee of that. Set up costs are a few thousand francs and you must invest at least 20K in the company.
4. You find a Swiss payroll company to receive the fee gross from the UK agency, and they deduct a fee then handle your Swiss taxes etc.

The problems you'll encounter are due to the recruiters being unfamiliar with how to hire off-shore resources who work offshore. They'll talk about IR35, they'll talk about you can't be a sole trader and possibly many other things that have absolutely no relevance as you will not be working nor living in the UK.

I'd go for option 2, if the Swiss authorities will let you, otherwise option 4. If the UK agency have a Swiss branch, they might even be able to set it up for you.

(I live and work in Switzerland also, but I've used option 3).