Once you have something going you can print your businesscards or get T-Shirts with logos and other advertising accessories e.g. http://www.vistaprint.ch/vp/paidsear...3%3a36%3a57+AM

Thanks! I am already seeing their webpage!

Back in SA I wanted to start my electronics company when market was not very saturated, then China started heavily investing in Africa and they kicked out small enterprises. At least in EU it is quite common to work for large company and "boss", but elsewhere I would wanna be my own boss.

The main idea is, just start! Worry about the legal issues later when you actually make money, that's perfectly fine and legal.

I find the topic very interesting (I was thinking about it lately myself) and am not sure if I got everything correctly:

1. I thought the "Einzelfirma" thing was established with side businesses in mind. Did I get it right that you would need one to have a "real company" so you can in fact give out real invoices with VAT and so on? Would being a retailer without paying VAT really be legal? (even if you declare your income, the state is losing tax income or am I missing something?)

2. I understood that AHV and so on come with a price tag. I also understood that you could declare a part of your rented apartment as costs of the business. Do you guys do this? How does it balance in the end costs vs. saved taxes?

Thanks!

Chris

This is it. The thing that deters many promising enterpreneurs is usually admin and beaurocracy involved in setting up a business. I am not even sure if there is tax up to certain amount here in CH. Isn't it once the business is earning above certain threshold then it is taxed?

That's correct, but if you do it small scale with Vorauszahlung (payment in advance) you won't need to invoice anyone and it's perfectly legal. The VAT you pay when declaring it at the customs.

http://www.kmu.admin.ch/themen/00614...x.html?lang=de

Unfortunately there's no English version of it. But it basically sais that you need to keep your costs and sales and be able to provide it if asked for your taxes. In reality they won't ask for it if it's just a few thousand CHF, and few will actually even bother to declare it. It really depends how you intend to market your products, if it's still in a semi-professional/"let's check out the demand" way I wouldn't bother with anything but declaring it at customs and doing a really simple accounting.

I asked my Italian colleagues in the past and they taught me everything I should know about how to deal with taxes and declarations

You can get a small invoice book from stationary. When it comes to sports 9 out of 10 people that I know are private trainers.

A bit lousy translation from the link above:

Sole proprietorship

Under Neuunternehmerinnen and entrepreneurs, the individual firm is still the most popular legal form. It is legally present when an individual alone carries a commercial activity, so a business or a company operates.
Owners of the single company to bear the business risk for which they cling with all their private and business assets. On the other hand they alone determine its business policy. If the business is successful, it can be converted without major problems in a company. It fails, the liquidation easier than other types.
For a sole proprietorship are no capital requirements, capital is only limited by the financial circumstances of the holder. A special act shall not be necessary. The individual company will then come to life if the owner or the owner starts the business. A corporate and business contract does not need it because the private company will only be conducted by the owner. The start-up procedures are correspondingly simple. The cost of consultancy and commercial entry are hardly ever more than CHF 1'000 .-.
The name of the company must consist of the name of the founder or the founder - with or without a name -. Fantasy or technical designations are only permitted as an additive. The Joinery Werner Mueller one could also "Carpenter Smith" or "WM Werner Müller, dipl. Joiners" hot.
If the annual turnover exceeds CHF 100,000 .-, the sole proprietorship must be mandatory register of companies. With lower sales, you can add your company also voluntarily. The entry in the commercial has the consequence that the company name is protected and that the Firmeninhabende subject to the debt on bankruptcy.
With the entry in the commercial is the owner, the owner requires a proper, ie lead to double accounting. But even without a record Handelsregistereintrag obligation exists, ie You have to make the tax authority that all receipts and expenditures indicate in writing and keep it organized, together with the documents.

The difference is that you cannot expect any tax amnesty on offer here soon...

Einzilfirma is a legitimate business, it is just that it only employs one person - you.

It can issue invoices etc like any other business and you need to keep accounts like any other business., and just like any other buisness, it must be fully insured and pay AHV etc.

As you say, you can claim a percentage of your home costs against the firm for office space. I hadn't operated long enough before moving to Gmbh to know the value of this but I suspect it is not that much. The biggest benefit of self employment is that you claim back alot of your day to day expenses, however I was told the authorities expect to see you making money or they may question the validity of your status. I have no idea what happens if they think you are insolvent.

UPDATE:

Just wanted to let you guys know that finally this early morning I went to the Basel Handelregisteramt and I opened my einzel firma. They gave me a 240 CHF bill to pay for the registration and told me that they would procede as soon as I paid which I did immediately. You can also pay right there with a pin card or even a credit card.
The lady helping me was very nice and evenhelped me in English (because she saw my husband translating everything) and then told me if I needed info on TAX to go to "steues vervoaltung" (cant read the paper properly ).
I am very happy with this and well, will soon promote my business ventures

Tschuss!

A

The first step has been made. Now you need to make sure that you recover your investment in form of CHF240 and that will be related to your sale

I hope I will

Just to stick my oar in, my truehander says you cannot deduct the full cost of your apartment if you work there. You can only deduct the reasonable space you use. For example if you live in a 4 room apartment and one of the rooms is used as your office you may deduct 25% of the rent. This goes for a company car as well. They will ask/investigate exactly what percentage of your car is used for your business and then that percentage is deductable. So no using the comapny pre-tax profits to get that Aston Martin

LOL Thanks! I had not thought about it since my business will be very small so maybe 1/10th???
Let's see how it goes

Thanks

Angela

You do not need to pay anybody to start an einzelfirma.
If I were you i would start with the AHV. Ask them if you can register as self employed. They will want some proof of sufficient earnings before they register you.
Usually they will refuse to register you before you demonstrate enough earnings but because they are informed you can start then your business without any worries about legalities.
Once you reach an earnings level where you can be accepted by AHV as selfemployed then you can think about registering in the Handelsregister as an einzelfirma. It costs about 50CHF.

Now you will receive a lot of official looking letters telling you that you must pay various additional amounts for your offical registration. Throw them all away they are all frauds. You should also get an official warning about these frauds from the handelsregister.

Hi Marton and thanks, I do have a full time job so I am doing this for "fun".
The handelregistramt charged me 240 CHF for that (I read it in the official webpage). I was also told that because I wont make more than 3000 CHF then I do not need to register with AHV (which I am already paying from official job )

Price is correct -I misread the price page

my own attitude is to just start the business first and worry about everything else later.

having to pay taxes on profits you've made is a good problem to have, IMO.

i'd rather not get bogged down in spending money on setting up a company, printing business cards etc. just go out and start selling stuff.

Deduct whatever you can, house office, car, meals out (try to go during the week) petrol, (try to fill up during the week). In fact get used to living in the week and having quiet weekends as expenses during weekend can be frowned on a little. Unless of course you can give good reasons as why you operate over the weekend.

Once the going gets tough, and it will for a period, the tax bills still come in, so by reduing your tax bill via deductions, you help yourself.

Get an accountant to do your tax returns as soon as feasible, whatver they cost you save by reducing your tax liability.