What is the best form of a company to set up in Switzerland in order to limit personal liabilities?
How much does it cost? How long does it take to set up? What is involved? Does one need a lawyer or is there an economical way to do it? Can a ready made company be bought "off the shelf"? In terms of privacy, are the names of the owners disclosed publically or just names of directors? How can directors be appointed that are not owners or that are minority owners? If a lawyer plays the role of the director in order to sign for the owners of the company, does that involve a big cost?

Tried the search tool, have you?

Here is a good thread to start with. There is also lots of official help available on the net. Try here for example, (see detail of different company types in links on left-hand side). There are federal as well as cantonal organisations whose job it is to encourage new startups. A lot of the info is in English. If you speak one of the Swiss languages, then try here or here. Good luck, and if you need a patent attorney, get in touch.

And if not, read the "similar threads" at the bottom of this page. All of the info you need is already here.

And if you want to see what information is published for a company, look at the swiss register of companies: http://www.zefix.ch.

Id think carefully before setting up a company in Switzerland ..there are currently some new rules being implemented in Bern which impose higher taxes on people who are just contracting to one firm ..i will try and dig something up...i am looking into setting up a business, but will wait until the rules become effective..

Check out startups.ch
I was up and running within a month, and got lots of advice (in English) from my contact person there.
Good luck!

Thanks for the link.

QQ -- is there any way you open a legal entity with no initial cash deposit? Thing is can't be sure it will work...

what about cantonal organisation which was mentioned before..is there any ini VD canton (montreux location)?please advise...thank you so much

Setting up a Sarl (limited liability company) - warning not to pay any fees which would indicate a payment to commerce registry.

This is unfortunately a common practice - once you establish a company, you receive couple of invoices, which look like official commerce registry payment slip, with the amount (600 CHF - 800 CHF) also indicating that.

Please make sure your notary will gather all the invoices for you and send them in one package, including his fee. Do not pay anything else.