Hello everyone. It's my first post here, I hope that it's the correct section. I apologize for my mistakes if I make any, English isn't my native language, luckily Grammarly does more than just catch errors .

To the point. I want to open a webshop in Switzerland selling electronics components. I already have designed a website with a couple products, and have some questions about it.
1. Is it legal to own a web store and earn money without registering a business (Einzelfirma)? I'm 15 and I think you have to be 18 to open a business. I also read something, that under 100'000 francs of annual profit, you don't have to register your business and pay taxes? If someone knows about it, I'd be grateful.
2. I would like to order products from aliexpress (China) and sell them in store for more, so I earn some money. I already make calculations, it's a nice profit :P. I think I don't have to pay any duties if the package value is under 65 CHF. But do I have to pay something for importing products and selling them even if it's under 65 CHF?

I'd be really grateful for your help.
Regards, Piotr.

Hi, looks like you need a lot of advice, I suggest your parents speak to an accountant to clarify the age thing, if it's not allowed at 15 (I don't know) get your Father to run the shop until you're 18.

But a couple of points.... the 100,000 relates to sales not profit (so many people seem to get these confused) and only relates to whether you need to register for MwsT.

And re importing, the 65.00 invoice level relates to 5.00 of MwsT on 7.7% taxable goods (including delivery) for personal imports without having to pay MwsT or handling fees. For commercial imports you can import as much as you like, but of course you will still need to pay MwsT and any Duty on the products that might be relevant.

But as I said above, get your parents to pay an accountant for an hour of his time to inform you and them about what you're getting yourself into.

There are also a lot of rules for the website itself, and your bookkeeping has to be correct.

Have a look at this website for more info: (in German)


https://www.vsv-versandhandel.ch/mem...endler-werden/

You only make a profit, it you can actually sell them and pretty much everyone I know buys direct from China in any case, so why would they suddenly decide to pay you more for the privilege of buying from you? Most of your sales are likely to be to people who get caught short and need to something right now, which means you'd need to hold large stocks to service a one off customer.

Oh now I get it with this limit and importing. Thank you for help.

Useful link. Thanks.

So basically you can run an internet shop without having a firm?

Because still in this day and age, a lot of people over 50 are frightened of ordering from China directly and so prefer a middle man.


Most products are ordered as and when the order is placed and take between 10-15 days to arrive.


Just to give an example from Ali Express, a new battery for a Dyson V6 hand hel hoover is Chf 95.-- from Dyson, USD 31.-- delivered in 10.15 days from China.


Sure it's not an original Dyson battery (also made in China) but it does the job i want it to do.

If you are bringing components in bulk into Switzerland, that is the components are to be located in Switzerland, then you have to consider that the postal costs are much higher within Switzerland than from China to Switzerland.

If you are having the components delivered from the Chinese supplier direct to the ordering customer, the long postal delays will cause irritation and the customer will also have to pay any VAT/customs duty above the threshold already mentioned.

You could experiment first with an eBay store / Paypal account / Swiss domain name (.ch) and see how you get on.

A couple of links that may help

https://www.ch.ch/en/becoming-self-employed/

https://www.kmu.admin.ch/kmu/en/home...s-eu-efta.html

As a sole proprietor your surname has to be part of the company's registered name, though you can use a trading name that doesn't have it. So the company's registered name could be Smith's Tools while the trading name is Tools Online for example.

<< under 100'000 francs of annual profit, you don't have to register your business and pay taxes>>
Now that would be something!

AFAIK you are not "Handlungsfähig" when 15 so not (legally) allowed to have a business.


https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handlu...gkeit_(Schweiz)

That's what I read on the internet.