Frontalier CMU: calculate your premium precisely

For a frontalier, choosing a health system is mandatory. 

With this formula, the calculation is so easy that even a Cro-Magnon man could you do it.

A premium proportional to your income

By contracting a Frontalier LAMal, you pay a lump-sum price (regardless of your income). 

On the contrary, by contracting a Universal Health Coverage (CMU), the more you make, the more you pay.

How to calculate the annual cost of a frontalier CMU? By using this formula…

It consists of three easy to find numbers: 

• Reference Fiscal Income (RFI); 
• The social security cap;
• The CMU contribution rate. 

Follow the guide. 

Stage 1: Find your Reference Fiscal Income 

Your  is indicated on your tax declaration. 

The little “-2” on the formula simply specifies that it is your income of the penultimate year. 

Which is logical. Are you calculating for the year 2021? In this case you look at your tax declaration of 2020, which reflects what you made in 2019. 

So it is the Reference Fiscal Income of 2019 which is taken into accounts to calculate your contributions for the year 2021.

Got it? Very well, then you can move to stage 2 without reading the rest of this first stage.

If you still do not grasp how this functions, you can calculate your Reference Fiscal Income based on your taxable next net income.

• Tax deductions: fixed (10% of your income) or actual professional costs; 
• Costs: retirement planning or alimonies paid; 
• Special tax deductions: regarding elder people or people with disabilities. 

To go from the taxable net income to the Reference Fiscal Income, you must add to the former… 

• Tax exempt income or subject to another method of taxation: income from movable capital, capital of Swiss retirement planning second and third pillars; 
• Special tax deductions such as dividends. 

Stage 2: calculate the 25% current cap of Social Security 

The annual cap of Social Security is determined each year on 1 January by the French relevant authorities. 

The number is easy to find by looking it up on Google

In 2021, it is 41,136  €.

25% of this cap, is 1/4, which means you have to divide the cap by 4. Which gives us 10,284 €.

Be careful: make sure to take the most recent number. Most broker websites wrote their articles a long time ago and did not take the time to update the information. 

Stage 3: Take the CMU contribution rate 

the CMU contribution rate is also fixed by French authorities. Currently it is of 8%. 

Here too, before calculating make sure the rate is up to date. 

All you have left to do is to calculate 

Let’s take the formula from the start.

Annual contribution = (RFI -2 –25% x social security cap) x 8% (CMU rate)

Let’s imagine your reference fiscal income is 60,000 €. 

in this case, to calculate your annual CMU frontaliers premium, just proceed as follows….

(60,000 – 10,284) x 8% = 3,977,30€.

Which amounts to 331,45 € per month. 

The choice between frontaliers CMU and the LAMal is final. It is not to be taken lightly.

This was Noé, the FBK Conseils mascot who spends its life making yours easier.