Joint social security contributions 2024

Anyone in gainful employment is obliged to pay contributions from 1 January following their 17th birthday until they reach AHV retirement age. People born in 2006 will start paying contributions in 2024.

The AHV reform (AHV 21) was approved on 25 September 2022 and came into force on 1 January 2024. This guarantees the financing of the AHV and the level of pensions for the next ten years. Retirement will be more flexible and VAT will increase slightly.

The retirement age is 65. There are transitional provisions for women born between 1961 and 1969. It will also be possible to receive AHV pensions more flexibly.

Another new feature:

People who work beyond the reference age will in future be able to waive the excess and request that contributions be paid on their entire earned income. Employees must inform their employer of this decision no later than when they receive their first salary after the reference age. The choice to pay contributions on the full salary or to apply the excess will be automatically renewed for subsequent contribution years, unless the person communicates a decision to the contrary when the first salary of the following year is paid.

Self-employed persons who wish to waive the excess must inform the relevant compensation fund by 31 December of the current contribution year. This choice will be automatically renewed for subsequent contribution years, unless the insured person informs the compensation fund before 31 December of the year in question of his or her wish to apply the excess.

Salaries of less than CHF 2,300 per year per employer are not subject to AVS, unless the insured expressly requests otherwise. We would like to point out that income of minor importance is not applicable in a private household and that salaries must therefore be subject to AVS from the 1st franc.

1. Statutory rates for calculating contributions on gross salaries

2. Occupational pensions (LPP - 2nd pillar / basic plan)

From 1 January following their 17th birthday, anyone who works for the same employer for more than 3 months and receives an annual salary of more than CHF 22,050 from that employer must be insured under the LPP. Under a basic occupational pension plan, employees are insured only for the risks of death and disability until 31 December of their 24th year.

Savings contributions for old age begin on 1 January of the year in which you turn 25. The limits for occupational pension provision are as follows:

From 1 January 2011, anyone who continues to work after retirement age can continue to contribute to occupational pension schemes up to and including the age of 69.

3. Tax source

All foreign residents (not holding a C permit / not married to a Swiss national or holding a C permit) are subject to withholding tax.

Withholding tax is deducted according to the tax scale of the employee's canton of residence. Employers must therefore register with the relevant canton and apply the rules of that canton.

All scale changes apply from the 1st day of the following month.

Therefore, from 1 January 2024, the age limit of 25 for the granting of a deduction for family expenses will be abolished. As a result, children over the age of 25 may constitute dependants for parents who provide for their maintenance, provided they meet three conditions:

• The child is an apprentice with an apprenticeship contract or a student regularly enrolled in a secondary or higher education establishment during the calendar year; ;
• The child has net assets not exceeding CHF 92,432; ;
• The child's gross annual income does not exceed CHF 16,197 (full load) or CHF 24,296 (half load).

4. Minimum wage 2024

The minimum wage applies to everyone working in Geneva, with the exception of apprentices, trainees (in school or vocational training) and minors.

The occasional professional activities of students aged over 18, known as «student jobs», are excluded from the scope of application of the minimum wage if the activity is covered by a collective labour agreement and if the following cumulative conditions are met:

• The student is registered with a training establishment; ;
• The activity takes place during the school's holiday period
• training ;
• The activity does not exceed sixty continuous days per calendar year; ;
• Salaries are set by the relevant joint committee.

For 2024, the minimum wage in Geneva will be CHF 24.32 per hour.