§ Audience 01 · Cards B · C · K
Independent, mission-aligned advisory for accredited Heads of Mission, Ambassadors and senior diplomatic personnel posted to Geneva. The bureau translates immunity and privilege into a documented financial architecture, and ensures every Swiss counterpart reads your status the way the Accord de Siège intended.
Diplomatic mission member. Salary exempt from Swiss income tax, LAMal exemption granted on a documented file, immunity preserved on financial holdings. The audit secures the AEOI classification at the Swiss bank and prepares the structures that survive the next rotation.
International civil servant. Salary exempt under the headquarters agreement of the organisation, but cantonal administrations tend to default to ordinary rules. Priority of the bureau: securing the LAMal exemption in writing, aligning savings on a Pillar 3b that respects the temporary nature of the assignment.
Consular privilege. Salary exempt, yet the local administration sometimes reads the K card as an ordinary residence permit. A specialised consular health plan fixes premiums and prevents the Swiss standard tariff from creeping into the mission budget.
Since March 2026, the Confederation has standardised the format of the Legitimation Card. The new polycarbonate document looks close to a Swiss residence permit, yet the legal status of the bearer remains governed by the Accord de Siège and the Vienna Conventions.
Swiss banks and local insurers are still adjusting to the new format. Many counterparts now read the cards as ordinary permits, triggering incorrect AEOI reporting, unwarranted LAMal enrolments and unnecessary withholdings. The bureau acts as the institutional interpreter of the mission, so that every counter recognises the card for what it is.
§ 01 · The 2026 paradigm shift
The polycarbonate Legitimation Card resembles a Swiss residence permit more than ever, yet nothing in the underlying treaty framework has changed. The role of the bureau is to keep that distinction visible to every bank, insurer and cantonal office that interacts with the mission, and to remediate the files where the distinction has already been blurred.
Briefing of the relationship manager so the AEOI classification is set correctly and Swiss withholding tax is not debited from accounts that the Accord de Siège exempts.
Full handling of the dialogue with the Service de l'assurance-maladie when the canton attempts a LAMal enrolment, until the formal written exemption is obtained.
Where a misreading has already produced a deduction, an enrolment or a fiscal entry, the bureau files the requalification with the FTA and recovers the amounts the mission was entitled to keep.
§ 02 · The art of the exemption
A diplomat posted to Geneva is not merely permitted to opt out of LAMal, the bureau holds that staying in is usually a mistake. Swiss standard insurance is engineered for permanent residents. It collapses on the next rotation, and it overlooks the cover already provided by the sending state.
§ 03 · Wealth under diplomatic status
Most Swiss financial products are designed for the standard taxpayer. The familiar 3rd Pillar A trades a deduction the diplomat cannot use against a lock-up that outlasts the mission. The diplomatic profile requires the inverse: liquidity, portability, and a wrapper that preserves an exempt status.
§ 04 · The diplomatic mortgage
Acquiring property in Geneva is the most effective way to anchor diplomatic wealth in Switzerland. The standard mortgage market, however, is largely closed to CD card holders. Retail banks remain reluctant to lend, since immunity prevents them from foreclosing under their usual practice.
Lex Koller framework. The exemption a card holder enjoys is strictly personal, non-commercial and temporary: it permits the acquisition of a primary residence without prior authorisation, but formally prohibits converting it into a rental investment (buy-to-let). On the end of functions or departure from Switzerland, the property must in principle be sold, or kept for personal use — it cannot be retained as an income-generating asset. The bureau builds this constraint into the structuring from the outset, so that no acquisition creates an unforeseen forced-sale obligation.
§ Lead magnet · 2026
A confidential checklist covering the 2026 card transition, the LAMal exemption, the Pillar 3b set-up and the mortgage pre-approval. Designed for Heads of Mission and senior diplomats arriving or rotating in Geneva this year.
Provide your official institutional or professional email to receive the file through a secure Swiss channel. Strict confidentiality. Processed within the Confederation.
§ 06 · Sovereignty audit
An indicative measurement of the fiscal and insurance leak that the Swiss system imposes on a mission portfolio when the legitimation card is not properly recognised. Enter the savings held in Swiss banks, tick the items that apply to the file, read the order of magnitude on the right. The complete audit, conducted under privilege, goes considerably deeper.
Indicative figures calibrated on the average Geneva exposure for a CD card holder. The actual recovery is computed on real statements during the audit.
§ Simulator
The current Swiss structure is mission-locked. A departure without a Pillar 3b transition typically erodes 20–30% of the accumulated capital.
§ 05 · Frequently asked
§ Begin
A confidential review, included in our onboarding protocol, of every active policy, account and structure carried by the mission, measured against the legitimation card, the sending-state reciprocity and the latest cantonal practice in Geneva.
Mandat Genève