Hiring cross-border commuters: what employers in Liechtenstein need to know

Cross-border commuters are not an exception in Liechtenstein, they are the norm: more than half of all employees commute in daily from the St. Gallen Rhine Valley, Vorarlberg or Grisons. Anyone recruiting in the principality will almost inevitably hire people resident abroad.

The administrative effort is manageable, but it has two pitfalls: a deadline that falls before or after the first working day depending on nationality, and a tax question whose answer depends on the country of residence.

What matters is nationality, not country of residence. There are two routes:

• EEA and Swiss nationals — cross-border commuter registration confirmation (GMB). By far the more common case. Requirements: place of work and employer are in Liechtenstein, and the person returns to their place of residence daily. Registration happens after the start date.
• Third-country nationals resident in the EEA or Switzerland — cross-border commuter permit (G). This has to be applied for before the first working day. Reverse the order and you are employing someone without a valid permit.

The daily return requirement has one exception: in care work and hospitality with split shifts, returning to a place of residence in the EEA or Switzerland at least once a week is sufficient.

The complete notification of cross-border commuter activity must reach the Migration and Passport Office in Vaduz no later than ten days after the start of employment. The clock runs from the first working day, not from signing the contract — so build the paperwork into your onboarding.

The confirmation is issued as a credit-card-sized document that lets the person identify as a cross-border commuter during a check. Since July 2023 a digital version has been added: all holders receive the eGMB automatically and free of charge in the eID.li app.

For wage and withholding tax, your employee's country of residence decides — and the two neighbouring countries are treated differently.

• Resident in Austria: you deduct four percent withholding tax from the salary and remit it to the Liechtenstein tax authority. A dedicated supplementary form exists for these cases.
• Resident in Switzerland: the cross-border commuter provision of the double taxation agreement applies (Art. 15 para. 4). It ceases to apply if the person does not return to their place of residence on more than 45 working days per calendar year — worth checking closely where there is heavy travel or off-site assembly work.

Important for you as the employer: the liability is yours. If you have not made the deduction, or made it insufficiently, the tax authority can claim the amount from you — regardless of whether you accounted for it in the payroll. For unusual arrangements it is cheaper to clarify the case with the tax authority in advance than to correct it afterwards.

Social insurance follows its own logic: as a rule a person is covered where they work, so in Liechtenstein. As soon as someone works in several states, however — through home office at their place of residence, for instance — that can change. The AHV-IV-FAK institutions give binding guidance.

Because the administrative path for EEA and Swiss nationals is short, you can extend your search radius across the border without hesitation. For most roles that is the difference between a handful of applications and a real field of candidates.

Two things help concretely: state the place of work including the municipality, so commuters can judge the journey. And give a salary range — anyone commuting in from Switzerland or Austria will work out what is left after deductions before applying.

For what a listing that actually attracts applications looks like, see writing a job ad. For your future employees' perspective, see our guide on cross-border commuters in Liechtenstein — it covers what is on their mind before they apply.