Wish you good luck and lots of success.

Hi Charlie and thanks for the tip. Since my business is small I am not tax liable until I start making 75000 CHF in profit (I also read that from the official TAX webpage so I should not worry about it.
I will try to deduct about 15% of my rent since I use only one room in the house where I will store and display the stuff.
I have an accountant doing my taxes already for this year and I will contact him for next year as well. I am very excited, I get my first batch of goods the first week of April....

> I am not tax liable until I start making 75000 CHF in profit

It's late here, is that 3 zero's? or..

CK

no, the 75,000 is right... in fact in some situations it's up to 100K.

Angela, best of luck in your venture. I might also be a customer if you get stuff I like

One can never have enough clothes. ;-p

Yes it was seventyfivethousand chuffys

Are you not confusing VAT with your tax liability. If you make a profit, that profit is taxable, so by deducting everything possible, you "reduce" your profit, thus reduce your tax liability.

You will not be able to get a VAT number in advance unless you can adequately prove your turnover to be in excess of 100k within 1 year. Once yoiu get to qook turnover in 1 year, it is for you to apply for a VAT number in Bern; the process is relatively painless.

I am a bit confused but maybe it is just a weird day. Ok so I know I have to declare what I earn when I do my tax return and for VAT as long as I do not make more than 100K profit I do not need a VAT number.

100k TURNOVER and you need a VAT number otherwise about right !

good people!

So this was predicted by some of you. Today I got three bills to pay in the mail. Thank GOD I speak a Swiss language and I managed to read that they are optional. Which was very encripted by the way...these were from:
IFWP: Institut fur wirtschaftspublikationen AG = 699.44 CHF
Zentral-Register-Handel der Schweizerischen Wirtschaft = 593.95 CHF
NMC-Register AG = 495.50 CHF

I will NOT pay for these as they are not mandatory or even necessary.

Just wanted to warn other people...

Typical; amazing that they are allowed to get away with these requests that would fool many people.

Hey Angela.
Sorry, I didn't see this thread until now So these are probably too late info, but might be useful if there are other people thinking about the same.

Before I got my current job I was also starting to think about own business.
I found this page http://www.baselarea.ch/en.html and they offer free, yes FREE help.
I emailed them and told them my idea about online shop with employer of one (myself).
I got the following link that offers you an overview about the different legal forms in Switzerland: http://www.gruenden.ch/fileadmin/use...t_e_200810.pdf

Best of luck and please let us know how it goes with you!

Thanks Begga,
So far so good, I am getting (or rather bringing) my first order by the end of next week. Hopefully I will be able to start my webpage soon as well...have to torture hubby to start doing it

They are just trying it on, that's part of business, seeing what you can get away with or not.

Sure you can regulate against everything, but do you want you life/business totaly controlled by a set of laws that do not really fit properly as we all know one size does NOT fit all. Take the USSR as a good case study.

Let people live and learn, if you're that foolish to pay every bill that comes to you without question, well you get what you deserve.

Angela, basiclay if you haven't got it physicaly or are not using the service, don't pay for it or make sure you know what you are paying. The crap you got comes through regularly

Thanks Charlie, yep I was aware of these practices thanks to some of you guys. I had fun reading and re-reading what this receipts were for, which is mainly cr@p...such as re registering somewhere or appearing in a magazine ...

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.

Great Post; wish you every success

Surely you are paying VAT 7.6% when you import the shoes? If you are VAT registered, then you could recover the VAT you paid (so-called Vorsteuer).

Yes, I pay 7.6% on import (plus handling charges).
I realize I could get it back if I were VAT registered, but why would I do that when my earnings are well below the tax threshold (and my running costs are minimal)? It would only mean that I also have to charge my customers 7.6% more for their shoes.

It only makes sense to be VAT registered if:
1. Earnings take me over the threshold, and I am obliged to register, or
2. I have high running costs from which I can reclaim the VAT, or
3. My customers are other businesses who can reclaim the VAT on servicesthey buy in (i.e. Running shoes)

None of the points above is true for me.

Dear Angela-74
I am sory but where are you from?
And forexample if you have B permit and business what will you do when your B permit will be finished?
They will give you a new one becouse you have a business?

thank you.