Before you start

Registration at your commune
Employment contract
Residence or G permit
An AVS number, issued through your employer

Step-by-step

1
Expect withholding at source on a B or L permit
Cantonal, communal and federal tax come off your salary at a scale set by the canton. Nothing further is due at the point of payment.
Via employerWho: Your employer
2
Check the commune's coefficient before you sign a lease
The cantonal coefficient is uniform; the communal one is not. Lausanne, Renens, Pully, Écublens and Épalinges each set their own, and the tables are published by the canton every year.
OnlineWho: You
3
French commuters: give your employer the stamped attestation de résidence fiscale
Under the 1983 agreement, which covers Vaud along with Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Bern, Solothurn, Valais, Neuchâtel and Jura, you are taxed in France and the Swiss employer withholds nothing. France separately pays Switzerland compensation of 4.5% of the aggregate wage bill — a state-to-state transfer, not a deduction from your pay.
Via employerWho: You, with your French tax office
4
Request an ordinary assessment if it pays
Above an income threshold it is compulsory. Below it you can request one to claim real deductions — third pillar, childcare, actual travel and meal costs, mortgage interest — instead of the flat allowances in the withholding scale.
OnlineWho: YouBy 31 March of the following year
5
Budget for the wealth tax, which most newcomers have never paid before
Vaud levies an annual tax on net worldwide wealth above an allowance, at cantonal and communal rates. For someone arriving from a country with no wealth tax this is an entirely new line item and it applies to assets held abroad, not only in Switzerland.
OnlineWho: YouAnnually
6
Use the third pillar, including the new catch-up
3a contributions are deductible up to CHF 7,258 for 2026 if you are in an occupational pension scheme. From 2026 you can buy back missed years for the first time, up to ten years back, but only once the current year is fully funded.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Residence or G permit
Annual salary certificate
AVS number
Attestation de résidence fiscale for French commuters
Proof of deductions if requesting an ordinary assessment

Things most newcomers don’t know

Vaud commuters are taxed in France; Geneva commuters are taxed in Switzerland. The cantons are forty minutes apart.

Vaud is inside the 1983 France-Switzerland agreement, so a French resident working in Lausanne pays French income tax and sees no Swiss deduction, provided the employer holds the stamped attestation. Geneva stayed outside that agreement and taxes its commuters at source. Frontalier advice is canton-specific and applying Geneva's to a Vaud job produces the wrong answer in both directions.

Source: 1983 France-Switzerland agreement on cross-border workers

From 1 January 2026 a permanent 40% telework rule governs French-resident commuters.

An amendment to the France-Switzerland double tax treaty entered into force on 24 July 2025 and applies from 2026. Up to 40% of annual working time may be worked remotely, including a maximum of ten days of missions in the residence state or a third country, without shifting where the salary is taxed. Employers must now report each employee's telework rate — so informal arrangements stop being invisible.

Source: State Secretariat for International Finance — entry into force of the amendment

The wealth tax is the line most arrivals have never budgeted for.

Vaud taxes net worldwide wealth annually — savings, securities, property abroad, less debts and an allowance. Someone arriving from the UK, the US or Germany has no equivalent experience and typically discovers it at the first ordinary assessment, along with the fact that a foreign house they still own is inside the base.

Source: Canton of Vaud — taxes and finances

The 3a retroactive buy-back is new, and the first eligible gap year is 2025.

Until this reform, an unused third-pillar year was gone forever. From 2026 you can fill gaps going back up to ten years — one past year at a time, and only once the current year is fully paid. For a mid-career arrival in a high-rate canton, that is a substantial deduction nobody will prompt you about.

Source: Federal third-pillar rules on retroactive purchases

Common mistakes to avoid

Applying Geneva frontalier advice to a Vaud job — the taxing state is different.
Starting work as a French commuter without the stamped attestation, and having Swiss tax withheld you then have to reclaim.
Choosing a commune on rent alone and ignoring a communal coefficient that varies across the canton.
Arriving with no plan for an annual wealth tax that reaches assets held abroad.
Missing the 31 March deadline to request an ordinary assessment and losing a year of real deductions.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.