What does it really mean to be "domiciled" somewhere?

What does it really mean to be "domiciled" somewhere?

"I'm often asked the question "Are you domiciled in Switzerland? What exactly does 'domiciled' mean? Can you just have an address, or do you have to file your papers, take out health insurance, pay tax, etc?"

Véronique, Vaud

The legal concept of domicile is important, as it makes it possible to establish a person's attachment to a territorial area and to determine in certain situations to which legislation and which authorities, judicial or administrative, that person is subject. In principle, anyone is free to establish a voluntary domicile wherever they wish, provided, of course, that they have the right to reside in Switzerland.

Article 23 of the Civil Code states that the domicile of any person is the place where he resides with the intention of establishing himself there. Residence implies more than a passing stay in a particular place; the person concerned must therefore create close links with a given place. The intention to establish oneself means that the person adopts a behaviour consisting in creating or maintaining in a certain place the centre of his personal or even professional relations; this intention must be recognisable by third parties and imply an element of duration. Case law therefore specifies that a person's domicile is the place where he or she has his or her "centre of life", i.e. the place where he or she undertakes activities and maintains his or her private relationships.

No person may have more than one domicile at the same time. When the conditions for a voluntary domicile within the meaning of the law appear to be met in several places, a choice must be made: only the place with which the individual has the closest ties can constitute his domicile. In this respect, the place where papers are deposited and taxes paid is an indication, but is not decisive if family and friends are elsewhere. An employee who rents a flat to live in during the week at his place of work, but returns regularly at weekends to his family in a town where he has most of his friends, where he belongs to sports associations and where he enjoys his hobbies, has been found to be domiciled there, even if he spends more time at his place of work.