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Moving from the UK to Switzerland: Legal and Tax Planning Before You Relocate

Switzerland has long been a preferred destination for internationally mobile individuals, entrepreneurs and wealthy families. Against a backdrop of significant changes to the UK tax landscape, many individuals are once again considering whether Switzerland offers a more attractive environment in which to live, work and preserve wealth.

However, relocating is rarely as simple as booking a flight and finding a new home. For individuals with UK assets, business interests, trusts or family wealth structures, the decisions taken before departure can have significant long-term consequences.

The most successful relocations are often those where legal, tax and succession planning begin well before the move takes place.

Why Switzerland Continues to Attract International Families

Switzerland remains one of the world’s leading centres for private wealth, family offices and international business.

Attractions include:

• Political and economic stability
• A sophisticated banking and wealth management sector
• Strong privacy protections
• International schools and high quality of life
• Established legal frameworks for wealth preservation
• Access to major European markets

For entrepreneurs and internationally mobile families, Switzerland is often viewed as a long-term base rather than a temporary relocation destination.

The Five Legal Issues to Consider Before Leaving the UK

1. UK Inheritance Tax Exposure Does Not Necessarily End When You Leave

One of the most common misconceptions is that moving abroad automatically removes exposure to UK inheritance tax.

In reality, inheritance tax can continue to apply in a variety of circumstances, particularly where individuals retain UK assets or maintain connections with the UK.

Particular attention should be paid to:

• UK property holdings
• Business interests
• Existing trust arrangements
• Family wealth structures

Understanding potential inheritance tax exposure before departure is often a critical part of any relocation strategy.

2. Review Existing Trusts and Wealth Structures

Many internationally mobile families already have wealth planning structures in place.

These may include:

• Trusts
• Family investment companies
• Holding companies
• Family office arrangements

A move to Switzerland may alter how these structures operate or how they are treated from a legal and tax perspective.

Existing arrangements should be reviewed before relocation rather than after arrival.

3. Consider UK Property Ownership Carefully

For many individuals relocating to Switzerland, UK property remains one of their most valuable assets.

Questions frequently arise regarding:

• Retaining investment properties
• Future inheritance planning
• Ownership structures
• Succession arrangements
• Cross-border tax exposure

Failing to review UK property holdings before relocating can create avoidable complications later.

4. Entrepreneurs Should Review Corporate Structures

Business owners often focus on personal tax planning while overlooking their corporate arrangements.

This can be a costly mistake.

Issues may include:

• UK trading companies
• Shareholdings
• Group structures
• Management and control considerations
• Succession planning for family businesses

For founders and business owners, relocation should be viewed as both a personal and corporate planning exercise.

5. International Families Need a Succession Plan

Increasingly, wealthy families operate across multiple jurisdictions.

A typical family may have:

• Property in the UK
• Swiss residence
• International investments
• Children studying overseas
• Family members resident in different countries

Without proper planning, succession issues can become significantly more complex.

Ensuring wealth can pass efficiently between generations should form part of any relocation strategy.

The Rise of the “Mobility Portfolio”

A growing number of wealthy individuals no longer organise their lives around a single jurisdiction.

Instead, they maintain a portfolio of residences, investments, businesses and family interests across several countries.

This approach offers flexibility, but it also increases legal complexity.

Questions of residency, succession, governance and asset protection increasingly require coordinated planning across multiple jurisdictions.

For many families, Switzerland forms one part of a broader international strategy rather than the entire strategy itself.

Relocation Is More Than a Tax Decision

While tax is often the catalyst for relocation, the most important issues are frequently legal rather than fiscal.

A successful move requires consideration of:

• Wealth preservation
• Succession planning
• Family governance
• Asset ownership
• Business structures
• Cross-border risk management

Addressing these issues before relocation can help avoid costly restructuring exercises in the future.

Looking Ahead

As international mobility continues to increase, Switzerland is likely to remain a key destination for entrepreneurs, investors and wealthy families seeking long-term stability.

Those considering a move should ensure they understand not only the tax implications of relocation, but also the wider legal consequences that can affect family wealth for generations to come.

To discuss the contents of this article, please contact us.

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The UK-Switzerland Trade Deal: It’s not just E-Gates and Roaming

What does the UK-Switzerland trade deal mean?

The UK and Switzerland have concluded negotiations on a landmark enhanced Free Trade Agreement designed to strengthen trade, services and professional mobility between the two countries.

Much of the early attention has focused on the more immediate travel benefits: access to Swiss e-gates and the proposed removal of mobile roaming charges. For frequent travellers, those changes are welcome. But the UK-Switzerland trade deal is about far more than avoiding a passport stamp.

Its longer-term significance lies in the strengthening of the UK-Swiss business corridor. For businesses, family offices, fiduciaries, wealth managers and professional advisers operating across both jurisdictions, the agreement is another sign that the relationship between the UK and Switzerland is becoming more structured, more mobile and more commercially significant.

The agreement is not yet in force. The UK Government has confirmed that both countries must complete their domestic procedures before businesses can trade under its terms.

Key takeaways

• Professional services, business mobility and digital trade are central to the agreement.
• The UK Government estimates that the deal could increase UK services exports to Switzerland by £5.2 billion annually in the long run.
• The agreement may make dual UK-Swiss business structures more attractive.
• Swiss businesses, UK companies, family offices and advisers should use the announcement as a prompt to review whether their contracts, governance arrangements and structures remain fit for purpose.
• For clients with UK-Swiss interests, access to English law advice in Switzerland is likely to become increasingly important.

Why is the UK-Switzerland trade deal important?

The public headlines are easy to understand: faster border access, fewer passport queues and lower mobile costs. Those are practical benefits, particularly for those who travel regularly between the UK and Switzerland.

However, focusing only on travel misses the more important commercial point.

The agreement reflects the reality that the UK-Swiss relationship is not simply about goods moving across borders. It is about people, capital, advice, contracts, structures, investment and services moving between two sophisticated markets.

Services are at the heart of the story

The UK Government has described the agreement as its most significant services trade agreement to date. Switzerland is already one of the UK’s most important services export markets, with government and press coverage highlighting the expected £5.2 billion annual uplift in UK services exports in the long run.

The agreement is expected to support professional services, business travel and mobility between the two countries. Reuters has reported that the deal allows visa-free travel for professionals in finance and other sectors for up to 90 days annually, alongside arrangements for longer staff transfers.

For internationally active clients, this matters more than the travel headlines. Easier movement of professionals makes it simpler for businesses and advisers to service clients, attend meetings, manage projects and support cross-border operations.

For Swiss-based clients with UK connections, or UK businesses looking at Switzerland, the agreement may make the UK-Swiss corridor feel more practical, predictable and commercially attractive.

What does the trade deal mean for corporate and commercial clients?

For corporate and commercial clients, the trade deal is less about an immediate need to change structure and more about confidence, planning and opportunity.

In recent years, businesses have become increasingly strategic about where they base operations, hold assets, raise capital and access professional advice. For companies with UK and Swiss connections, that often means looking carefully at how the two jurisdictions can work together: whether through a UK subsidiary, a Swiss holding structure, a UK customer base, Swiss investment, or a management team that operates across both markets.

The new trade deal reinforces that direction of travel. It may make the UK-Swiss corridor feel more practical for businesses considering expansion, investment, acquisitions or a dual-market presence.

Swiss businesses may look again at the UK as a market for growth, talent, finance, acquisitions or strategic partnerships. UK businesses may view Switzerland as a more attractive base for international operations, particularly in sectors where Switzerland already has a strong reputation, including finance, life sciences, commodities, technology and professional services.

Zug’s digital asset and blockchain ecosystem, often referred to as “Crypto Valley”, is also part of that wider business environment. The trade deal is not about crypto specifically, but it sits within a broader UK-Swiss relationship that is increasingly relevant to innovative, internationally active businesses.

For companies operating, investing or expanding across both markets, the practical questions are likely to be:

• Does the existing corporate structure still support the business’s growth plans?
• Should the business operate through a UK company, Swiss entity, branch, joint venture or group structure?
• Are shareholder, investment and founder arrangements properly documented?
• Do commercial contracts reflect the way the business now trades across jurisdictions?
• Are governing law, jurisdiction and enforcement clauses clear?
• Are intra-group services, management arrangements and employee mobility properly structured?
• Are IP, licensing, brand expansion and supply arrangements protected?
• If the business is considering an acquisition, investment or exit, are UK and Swiss considerations being addressed early enough?

The businesses that benefit most from a closer UK-Swiss relationship will not simply be those that spot the opportunity. They will be those that ensure their legal and commercial foundations are strong enough to support it.

What does the trade deal mean for private wealth and family offices?

The UK-Swiss relationship has long been important in the private wealth space, but it feels particularly relevant now.

Our Private Wealth & Tax team works closely with family offices, high-net-worth individuals, trustees, fiduciaries and internationally mobile families, and in recent years we have seen an increasing focus on how wealth, business interests and family structures are organised between the UK and Switzerland.

That trend is not happening in isolation. The UK’s abolition of the non-dom regime from April 2025 has caused many internationally mobile individuals and families to reconsider their long-term UK position, while Switzerland continues to attract attention as a jurisdiction associated with stability, capital preservation and wealth protection. BDO’s Wealth Report 2026 found that two-thirds of the UK’s ultra-wealthy had considered leaving the UK for tax reasons, with the report emphasising policy uncertainty as a major driver. Henley & Partners’ 2026 private wealth migration research also highlights Switzerland as benefitting from demand for stability, capital preservation and wealth protection.

Against that backdrop, the UK-Switzerland trade deal is another signal that the relationship between the two countries is becoming more structured and commercially significant.

For family offices and private clients, the practical questions are often not about the trade deal itself, but about what closer UK-Swiss ties mean for wider planning. For example:

• Are existing trust, company and investment structures still appropriate?
• Is UK tax exposure properly understood?
• Does UK real estate sit within the right ownership structure?
• Are succession plans and wills aligned across jurisdictions?
• Are family governance documents keeping pace with how assets are managed?
• Are business interests split between the UK and Switzerland properly documented?
• Are digital assets or crypto-assets held in a way that can be controlled, taxed and passed on safely?

The point is not that the trade deal creates an immediate need to restructure. It does not. But it does arrive at a time when many internationally mobile families are already reviewing how their wealth is held, governed and protected.

For clients with family, business or asset connections across both jurisdictions, it may therefore be a useful moment to step back and ask whether existing arrangements remain fit for purpose.

Who benefits most from the UK-Switzerland trade deal?

The most obvious beneficiaries are businesses and professionals already active between the UK and Switzerland. However, the practical impact is likely to be broader.

Swiss businesses expanding into the UK may benefit from a more predictable framework, but they will still need to think carefully about contracts, UK subsidiaries, employment, tax and dispute resolution.

UK businesses entering Switzerland may find the market more accessible, but they will still need to decide how to structure operations, document commercial relationships and manage cross-border governance.

Family offices and UHNW clients may benefit from a closer UK-Swiss corridor, but should also be reviewing UK tax exposure, trusts, succession planning, relocation, UK real estate and family governance.

Fiduciaries, trustees, private banks and wealth managers may see increased demand from clients with connections across both countries, particularly where English law documentation or UK tax considerations arise.

Swiss law firms and professional advisers may also need English law support where client matters have a UK nexus.

The deal may be about trade, but the real opportunities sit around the legal, commercial and advisory infrastructure that supports UK-Swiss activity.

Will more businesses have both UK and Swiss offices?

It is too early to say exactly how businesses will respond once the agreement is in force. However, the direction of travel is clear.

The UK and Switzerland are making it easier for businesses and professionals to operate across both markets. That may encourage more companies to adopt a dual UK-Swiss footprint.

For some, that could mean a Swiss headquarters with a UK office or subsidiary. For others, it could mean a UK business using Switzerland as an international base. For professional services firms, it may mean building more integrated UK-Swiss client offerings.

This may be especially relevant in sectors where both countries already have strong reputations: finance, law, private wealth, technology, life sciences, commodities and digital assets.

The businesses that benefit most will be those that use the agreement as a prompt to review how they are structured, governed and protected, rather than treating it as a headline only.

Quastels LLP in Zug

Quastels’ Zug branch was established to support exactly this type of cross-border work: matters where Swiss-based clients, advisers or structures require English law advice.

Our work in Switzerland often sits at the intersection of business, wealth and international structuring, including English law contracts, UK-connected transactions, trusts, UK taxation, relocation, real estate, commercial disputes and private wealth disputes. Quastels’ Swiss office provides English law advice to Swiss and international clients on these UK-connected matters and works with Swiss law firms, wealth managers and fiduciaries.

As the UK-Swiss relationship continues to develop, we expect clients and advisers to place increasing value on joined-up advice across both jurisdictions.

For businesses, family offices, fiduciaries, wealth managers and internationally mobile individuals with interests in both the UK and Switzerland, this is a useful moment to review whether existing contracts, structures and long-term planning remain fit for purpose.

For advice on English law in a UK-Swiss context, or to discuss how the developing relationship between the two jurisdictions may affect your business, family office or wider interests, please contact our dedicated Zug Branch Office. 

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