I have been in Basel, Switzerland for 12 years. I am British with a C-Permit. Two years ago I set up my own hobby business selling ASICS running shoes on the Internet.

Before I started run71.com, I has a consultation with an accountant about the various options open to me to ensure I was completely legal income- and tax-wise. I was advised that unless you are turning over a significant amount of money (I dont remember the exact figure, but it was more than CHF 50,000 per year) OR your business costs are high, then it is not worth your while creating ANY kind of company.

In the first year I turned over about CHF 5000. I declared this on my tax return, clearly indicating my costs (which included a new computer, web-store software etc, etc). Making the "hobby business" basically a loss-making venture, to the tune of about CHF 1000. When I got my final tax bill for the year, they returned the paperwork for run71 with the comment (in German) "hobby businesses are not considered for tax purposes" - and completely ignored what I had submitted.

Since then I have a new tax consultant, and he recently told me that if a hobby business generates TURNOVER of less than CHF 5000 a year, OR profit of less than CHF 500 a year, there is no compulsion to declare it on your tax return. My turnover is now more than CHF 5000 per year, but of course, all my marketing expenditure can be off-set against profit, so at the moment I am able to justify not declaring it again on my tax return.

Think before you register for MWST. If you do so, you are compelled to charge your customers an extra 7.6% for your service/products. Since my customers are private individuals, it would only make the shoes more expensive, and/or reduce my profit margin.

It only really makes sense to register for MWST (which is free and very simple) if you are selling services direct to other businesses which are MWST registered.