Swiss Business Features

Switzerland includes twenty-six federations. This information about the state is important for those, who are going to register/open companies in Switzerland because taxation here has three levels:

• national (federal);
• canton (in terms of administrative districts – cantons/half-cantons, where each federation establishes different tax loads, having the legislative ability to give additional privileges to individual firms);
• local (the municipality).

The main fees part is paid at the second level. Constant tax cuts (due to legitimate competition between districts to attract capital) make the state an even more promising place to initiate and conduct business. Without EU membership, the Helvetic (old name of the territory) as a member of the passport and visa abolition Schengen Agreement discovers an access to the five hundred million European market for organizations registered here.

The Confederation’s legislation allows anybody non-Swiss to establish an enterprise (bureaucratic obstacles much less than in any other European society).

Steps towards registration/opening companies in Switzerland are clearly stated by the law:

1. Name-checking through the Commercial Register for uniqueness.
2. Authorized capital escrow by a Switzerland Bank.

After that, the process of obtaining an extract on entering into the Register takes one or two weeks.

The most widespread forms of ownership (AG, srl. etc.) for legal entities are:

• Limited liability company – LLC (you can find three other reductions in the official languages: GmbH – in German, sarl. – in French, srl. – in Italian);
• Joint Stock Company – JSC (AG; SA – accordingly, in German; French or Italian).

You can manage any firm yourself or by using highly qualified specialists of consulting structures.

There are significant disparities in company registration/opening and doing business in the Confederation:

• payment terms and norms on capital – dominant variations, which are significant at the opening phase. The minimum LLC capital requirement is twenty thousand Swiss francs, deposited after name verification. The lower equity threshold is one hundred thousand Swiss francs, fifty thousand of which should be prepaid before entering into the Register. The maximum amount of the authorized capital stock is not limited;
• the GmbH founders names should be recorded with the Commercial Register;
• shareholder’s anonymity is guaranteed;
• JSC shares are transferred to third parties without restriction (unless prohibited by the Charter);
• all changes of shares in LLC are made in writing, plus should be approved by the participants General meeting, without being put up on the market.

The main common points that need to be considered when planning a business in this area of reliability:

• information on Directors: at least one of the Executive signatories for the LLC (one member of the Director’s board for the JSC) must reside in the state permanently;
• tax conditions for doing business are the same for any of the above association types (they depend only on the activities nature);
• reports submission, its public availability;
• annual Directors (Participants/Shareholders) meetings should be held in Swiss.

There are no foreign exchange control for registered firms and clearly defined the organization responsibility level. Agreements on avoidance of double taxation with many countries work here. All these make Swiss Confederation a promising place for productive commercial activity.