Hi readers & posters

Business owner only here please or Swiss accountants

Is there a fringe benefits tax here?

Can business lunch & dinner be written off?

France has a tax threshold of 30,000 Euros on a company car.

has Switzerland any such limits?

business Travel & high end hotel Can they 100% be written of thru Business?

Is there a monetary amount each day for food & drink whilst Abroad.

If my home is my place of registered business can the company pay half the rent?

These are pretty basic question, but we are new here and want to make sure we do not make a mistake.

thank you in advance

Yes I will get an accountant soon

Get an accountant now. It's not expensive.

There are allowances. Are you registered as self-employed or do you have a registered business?

was it a vegan lunch?

vegan lunches are of course not a benefit at all. whereas a full-bodied meaty lunch is.

It will be a proper GmbH, employing my wife and me to start off with.

Since all we need for now is office and kitchen, this house is the base and registered address of our new company Vegan Ventures.

Thank you for your reply.

I'm guessing you can offset the office but not the kitchen.

Do you know why you need a GmbH rather than just being self-employed? Honestly....

www.colfina.ch is well thought of by many on EF.

I haven't heard of free lunches.

Only of free beer.

Yes, because the company will cover many different things, such as

book deals, recipe books of oil-free salad dressings, green juices, Raw Oil-free foods, etc. (working title "Vegan-Up in the raw)

Personal chefing gigs

Vegan cooking classes in Switzerland

Vegan reality concept script

Possible Glass-bottom boat operation in Tanzania

etc.

My understanding for having a proper company is that the liability falls on the company, not ourselves personally.

I can't answer them all.

Yes, there is a Fringe Benefits tax.

On vehicles FBT for us is valued at about 3,600 chf per year. So the benefit way, way outweighs the tiny FBT. Our car is well over 30,000 eur, the petrol, tires (summer/ winter), and insurance is all included

I was working from home and writing off the home office based on square feet of the office as a % of sq ft of the house. So you will be able to write something off, the office for sure, not sure of the tax authorities will let you have 100% of the kitchen.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. unless you are prepared to eat turkey. a whole one.

Hello :-O simply because a GmbH is liable with its limited assets only and as a self-employed you are liable with all your private assets.........

No such thing as a free lunch. If you're the owner of the company, and the company pays for the lunch it's still not free - you've still ultimately paid for it, although net of corporation tax.

I don't own a business, but I know that business expenses can be then personally taxed.

For example, my company permits me to use my mobile phone whilst travelling for "reasonable personal use", however the Swiss tax authorities have a more strict interpretation. So each month I need to declare whether I incurred more than CHF30 (I think) of personal calls and the additional amount is then a personal tax liability.

(But because company permits additional use, they compensate the tax. Which is then itself taxed. Which is compensated.....ad nauseam!)

Similarly, if travel, accomodation or meals are deemed excessive, they can be personally taxed

Go get yourself an accountant, you claim to earn €20-30k/moth so you can afford it !

What the account costs you you will save anyway.

If you have a GmbH, you then are emnployed by that company, so all expenses related to business can be written off via expense account. As a rule of thumb you shouldn't exceed 15% of your turnover in expenses.

Cars go on the company, phone bills, food & hotel bills are all workable as are gifts etc. Avoid eating out and weekend trips if you want to put them on the comany as doesn't look good. You can also pay "agent commission" but not to govt employeees (brother in law though is fine) usualy an invoice and a copy of the recipiants passport is suifficient for deduction.

Find a good accountant...

thank you for that
We will find a good accountant that speaks English but I have some booking to make over the next few days and wanted to know the basic

Keep all the receipts, even if your GmbH is not yet created you can use the receipts before incorporation date by saying it was "set up costs" but as i already said....you need to keep it in reason

Except all you can drink beer(FREE) with your lunch at Wadibrau!!!!!

Denise speaks excellent English and will help you immediately with the actual advice you need. For a very good price.

Thanks, but I can't even remember when I had a beer, ick.

Same advice my accountant gave me during the same process this year. Keep all the receipts. Basic rules on claiming is similar to most other places, probably in fact more generous, but you can work out the detail later with your accountant.

As someone said you still spent the money, you are just saving the tax, and maybe recovering the VAT.