To obtain a Swiss certificate, provide the same information as the one listed for a U.S. insurance certificate and enter your Swiss Social Security number instead of your social security number in the United States. The employer in the United States must keep a copy of the Swiss coverage certificate in the event of an examination by the IRS. Do not send a copy to the IRS. The IRS will specifically request a copy if it needs it. The process is similar to that of employees. Self-employed workers in Switzerland can apply for a coverage certificate at either the US Social Security Administration or the Swiss Compensation Fund in the canton in which you live. You should write in the country where you pay social security contributions. If it`s the U.S., you can request it online. All of these agreements are based on the concept of shared responsibility.

Responsibility-sharing agreements are reciprocal. Under each agreement, partner countries make concessions to their social security qualification rules so that those covered by the agreement have access to payments that they may not be eligible for. The responsibility for social security is thus distributed among the countries in which a person has lived during his or her working years and where the person is able to obtain potential rights. In general, it is possible to access a pension from one country in the second country, although the paying country retains some discretion with regard to the exchange and delivery mechanisms used. Under U.S. law, U.S. Social Security applies to the self-employed if they are U.S. citizens or foreign aliens. The agreement says that if you are independent and live in the United States or Switzerland, the country in which you live will cover you and tax you normally. Therefore, if you are self-employed and live in the United States, you pay U.S. taxes on self-employment and you do not have to pay Swiss Social Security taxes on your self-employed income.

On the other hand, if your employer sends you for five years or less from one country to work for that employer or subsidiary in the other country, you only pay social security contributions in the country from which you were seconded by your employer. And you don`t pay taxes in the other country. If, for example.B a U.S. employer sends a worker to work for an employer or subsidiary in Switzerland for at least five years, the employer and the worker pay only the United States.