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What is it about Switzerland and motor racing champions? When Lewis Hamilton upped sticks last year to move to the shores of Lake Geneva, he complained about the pressure of celebrity, in particular an unfortunate incident involving a fan and the washroom of a motorway service station. It sounded unconvincing; the Formula One driver is no shrinking violet.

Only months after he signed a contract for an apartment in Vèsenaz, a genteel lakeside suburb of Geneva, he complained of boredom. It is the perennial moan of the divas, ageing rock stars and fading glitterati who swallow their misgivings, take their accountants' advice and agree to spend half of the year watching swans drift between willow branches.

Jackie Stewart took up Swiss residence to reduce his tax bill. Then there was Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and more recently Fernando Alonso, Hamilton's former team-mate at McLaren Mercedes. Only an hour's drive away, he could drop in on Bernie Ecclestone, who owns the Formula One business and has taken up residence in Gstaad but he might not choose to spend the night; if Geneva is sometimes considered dull, the Bernese ski resort is a fur-lined mausoleum.

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For those with serious money and time on their hands, the Swiss offer a good deal, taxe à forfait or lump sum tax. Any foreigner entitled to reside in Switzerland (that includes Britons) and who has no intention of taking employment in the country is eligible. Under the forfait scheme, your income, no matter how large, is ignored. What is taxed is your annual consumption.

Typically, this is measured by assessing the deemed or actual rental income on your home in Switzerland. That figure is multiplied by five and the resulting sum is taxed according to the normal Swiss income tax rates. In Geneva, contrary to popular opinion, income tax is quite high for big earners, more than 40 per cent, but for Hamilton, the choice is a no-brainer.

His annual income, including celebrity endorsements for Tag Heuer watches and Reebok sportswear, is estimated by Sports Illustrated magazine to be $ 28million (about £18 million). Even if he pays an extortionate rent on his Geneva flat, his potential Swiss tax is a tiny fraction of the amounts he might pay Revenue & Customs on his worldwide income.