Can anyone help me

I have been told that I can work freelance, invoice within CH for work done and declare my earning on my husbands tax return as long as I pay my AHV contributions (Is AHV like the stamp in the UK?)

Anyway i would like to go down this route as it would seem easier to do, and I have also been asked by Swiss clients if I am paying AHV because if i'm not then they would have to pay on my behalf when they pay me.

So is this allowed? would i be able to do this?

Next hurdle is to speak with AHV, I was given a number for them from my local Kreisburo (Town Hall) but the number doesn't seem to work and the website is in German so if anyone has any contact info for AHV then that would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Nicky

You can tell the client that you will pay your own AHV. Then based on your earning you can pay it at the end of the year (can be upto 5 years late from my crap understanding). Basically the minimum comes to CHF400-500 per year.

http://www.svazurich.ch/index/index....elb&sprache=en

http://www.svazurich.ch/index/index....nen&sprache=en

Anyway take everything I say with a pinch of salt

You need to register as freelance with SVA. The will send you a form, and if they believe you then you must estimate your salary and they send you a bill for a % of your estimated earnings, usually payable quarterly. The % you pay goes up depending on the size of your income.

dave

Phone- 044 448 50 00

Ask fo rthe following form (the one Dave mentioned):


AHV_Beitragspflicht:
Fragebogen für Selbeständigerwebende und Personengesellschaften

Oh and the bill also includes your unemployment insurance, if you are eligable to join the scheme.

dave

keep calling that number and i can't get through, I get a disconnected type tone?

Thanks for the info JR and Dave

So I can actually do as I mentioned, work freelance and declare on my hibbys tax return? I don't have to register as a company or einzelfirma etc... which I don't want to do, i'm having trouble enough getting my head around this!

Now if only I could get through on the phone to the AHV office

You doing something wrong as I just tried it and it works. I actually need to call them as well.

Dave a small question coming for you in 2 minutes :-)

There are other numbers listed on this page. Keep trying until you find one that speaks English

dave

I think there is a lower limit below which you don't have to jump through all the hoops and register, but I would suspect that you will miss out on certain business expenses being deductible - I'm guessing here.

If I was an employee and did a 500chf one off job for someone else, then I'm not going register and deregister again...

As an aside, the client may inside upon proof that you are self employed, otherwise you could be considered an employee of theirs which may have unwanted implications for them....that is where your Commercial Register can be seen by everyone, to give them that nice warm feeling that your are established...

dave

Once you do get through, it might be worth enquiring about being self-employed part-time. For example, if you have a part-time job, for which the employer pays AHV, and you just do freelance jobs on the side.

The form is then "Selbstständig im Nebenerwerb" - it's less complicated, you don't have to prove you have a business with all the running costs, suppliers invoices, rental agreements etc.

In the form I mentioned the first question is in kind of two parts.

The first part basically asks you to choose from-

Landwirtschaftsbetrieb
Einzelfirma (X)
Teilhaber...
Agent...
____________________________
In my case I have ticked "Einzelfirma" correctly now the bottom half of it says

Einfache Gesellschaft* (--?--)
KollectiveGesellschaft* (not me)
KommanditGesellschaft* (not me)

* Handeresisterieuntrag oder Gesellschaftsvertrag
________________________________

Do I need to pick Einfache Gesellschaft*???? or can I leave it unselected? The * indicates that I need to register the firm first and send the proof with the form.

Leave it blank if you're not registering your company.

After typing the message I called them anyway. Yeah I need to leave it blank. I will register the company afterwards anyway...

Thanks for the confirmation Crumbs.

Again thanks for your replies

JR, are there any cost implications to being an Einzelfirma?

The problem I have is that I don't really want to open a seperate bank account for me as they're pretty expensive and I don't earn enough, i'd like to just pay my AHV contributions (is this the equivalent to the UK stamp national insurance???) and I'd like to pay my earnings into my husbands bank account and just fill my earnings in on his tax return, I don't really have many overheads to account for and set off against my earnings for tax relief, to be honest I have been self employed for 10 years in the UK and would be happy not to do accounts and tax returns again, just want to earn a bit of money and have less hassle.

JR just tried that number again on my mobile and got through, for some reason couldn't get through from my landline so will call again and see what they say

cheers
Nicky

You don't have to open a separate bank account. You just tell the client whichever bank account you want them to pay into. In your case your husbands...although you can open a simple Swiss bank account for yourself if you haven't got one.

You won't be loosing any money! The only thing you got to pay is your AHV contributions. So if you earn $0 then you have to pay the minimum which is CHF400 something per year. If you earn more then the contribution will adjust accordingly (the AHV calculator link I gave you).

I was working full time in UK so don't know the exact equivalent. I did freelance for a bit in UK but I managed to get away with murder as a result of moving here. So I filled just one freelance tax return form in UK. Boy did it give me a headache...

Edit- Although I think you should open a normal bank account in your name. Won't look nice if you tell the client to pay into your husband's account.

You can go to SVA and have a chat in English. They won't bite you :-)

True, i did think about that but thought if I just gave account number details they wouldn't know anyway.

Just called AHV, I am now more confused

You don't need a separate bank account, although it may be cleaner to keep things separate. The only thing about that is expenses will have be allocated as business or personal at the time (depending on which bank account you take it out of) you buy the petrol or whatever, which may mean you need a credit card on your business account too, which adds costs.

dave

I think I need to speak to someone maybe a tax accountaint about all this, its all very confusing, I also still earn money in the UK which at the moment I declare over there. I didn't really want to go down the whole self employed route again, declaring all expenses as it was a pain in the arse in the UK and will be an even bigger pain in the arse here with language issues. At the moment I just want to invoice the bits i earn and make sure that I am legal and pay the tax owed on that money and the AHV contributions, if business over here picks up then i'd consider setting up properly as self employed again and declaring all expenses etc..

As for the UK income, i have no idea what to do there...

Can anyone recommend a good accountant?

Thanks again for all your advice.

I think one has to fill the forms and pay and that is all they can help with. They also said that they may not be able to help with a permit to be self employed.