yes, I had that in the past and it was a special line in my salary slip, on which I have been taxed....

Yes this is considered a personal expense and as such must be added as a taxable item on your monthly salary slip and your year end Salary certificate.

You may be losing a big amount of money to the HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY (Caisse Maladie = CM) for nothing...

Because, in other words, your company chose the health insurance company (that you could otherwise choose by yourself) and pays the premium out of your salary, taking the amount of premium from your salary before they give you your salary (that you would otherwise make payment by yourself from your own bank account). It is kind of the company (the employer) so that you don't have to do take time to go to make payment or deal with CM communications in writting by yourself.

However,

The health insurance "basic/obligatory" policy premium varies from one from another, the gap could be some hundreds CHF. You may want to check how much your health insurance premium is. If it is more than CHF400/month (basic/obligatory part), dear, you are definitely losing money, to the CM company choosen by the employer.

See, COMPARIS website: https://en.comparis.ch/krankenkassen/default.aspx

and compare your CM with other CMs on the list of CM companies' basic premiums, if you are interested.

Of course, usually, for comapanies' (the employer with many employees), "collective" CM is considered and is cheaper than by individually insuring CM by employee her/himself. But, every year, every CM company changes the premium price (often increases). Sometimes, the employer (company) neglects this and all at sudden, you (employee) have to pay, for example, CHF450/m while you were paying CHF350/m in the previous years...  (This happened to some friends of mine.) You can do the math, how much the difference/year would be in 1 or 2 years. 

Depending on your employment contact, you may or may not able to change from the company's collective CM insurance to your personal/individual CM insurance making payment by yourself.

Tax and CM gives a headache in this country every time you have to think to avoid losing money, because if not, you do lose money for nothing...

Good luck.

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for your answers!! I really appreciate it :)

Liondiver you are totally right, i fully agree with you....at the end, the weaker person (in this case me) lose the money, never the company! :(

Hi Maria,

unless the rules have changed since i last looked at it, the cost although subject to income tax, is not subject to AVS, provided the company pays for all employees.

The company pays for you .. most people have to pay their own. Its illegal for them to reduce salaries to pay for it .. so its a free benefit. Whats not to like ..

Phillip

Thanks Philip!! really????? does it have to be taken just for Tax a Source and not AVS, etc?? do you know the website where i can check that?

I have been searching on Canton Vaud website, and I can't find it. :(

Tomorrow i have an appointment with the person in charge of my payroll and I would like to know in advance what  is right and what is wrong...

Thanks for your help! :)

hi maria,

just so you know, if you are taxed at source, you have the right to make a tax declaration and claim back what you have overpaid. tax at source always takes the maximum and if you do not do a tax declaration, you will never know how much you have overpaid. you can do the declaration on line without having to send it in.

in fact, now in Vaud, you are not even required to send in any paperwork! but you do need to have it available if they ask. as phillip said above, what's not to like :-)

roger

You will not be able to get an exact answer from anyone here because it depends on a lot of factors. The only people who can explain the exact details are your company's Payroll, have you asked?

As a general comment the fact that your company pays for your health insurance is a financial advantage for you that can be assimilated with a salary increase or a bonus and this is why it is taxed. It goes the same for substantial gifts or paid leisure trips. However companies sometimes negociate with the state how these extras are taxed, which makes it tricky for anyone from the outside to interpret it.

Catalin, is correct.

Best go to a person who has the work experience or business to help you.

Either someone in HR or a tax preparer. I would suggest FISC Impot

They are really cheep and accurate

http://www.impotfisc.ch/nos-agences.php

Nos principaux services :

Let's hope every single company/emplyer is a heavenly angel placing the top priority on the income and benefit of the employee over the company's economic growth! Welcome to the heaven of employees, Switzerland :-))

@ Maria, "Good luck" again anyway. You company may be a heavenly angel for its employee, as someone seems to believe so here!  Indeed, it could be true.

@ Dave, thanks for your constructive & contributing posting! I benefit the info from you here, as I am dealing with also the administration, HR - social insurances, health insurance, tax, AVS/LPP/3me pillier, etc. for the employee. Appreciated. 

Thank you guys for all your replies, now I am not so confused as before...(or even more!) hahaha anyways, hopefully tomorrow i can clarify all my doubts....