Sole proprietorship in Switzerland: what AHV, VAT and the commercial register cost in 2026

What does it cost to run a sole proprietorship in Switzerland? Registering one costs little; the real cost is somewhere else. AHV/IV/EO contributions for the self-employed are a percentage of your actual income, and the percentage itself rises with income — while even a very low income owes a minimum contribution of CHF 530 a year. A second group of decisions — the commercial register, VAT, bookkeeping — depends on how much your business turns over, not on how new it is.

Because contributions scale with income rather than sitting at one number, this article walks through the mechanism and the thresholds rather than a single total. Where a figure exists, it carries its source and the date we read it; where none does, we say so rather than invent one.

A sole proprietorship in Switzerland: AHV/IV/EO contributions dominate the cost

As a self-employed person, you pay the full self-employed rate yourself, with no employer sharing it. According to the AHV/IV/EO leaflet 2.02 ("Self-employed contributions to OASI, DI and IC", position as of 1 January 2026), the combined rate is OASI 8.1% + DI 1.4% + IC 0.5% = 10.0% of your income, once that income reaches CHF 60,500 a year.

Below that, the rate is degressive rather than a cliff edge. The leaflet publishes the full table: 17 income bands, from 5.371% on income of at least CHF 10,100 but less than CHF 17,600, up to 9.321% on income from CHF 58,000 to under CHF 60,500, before the full 10.000% from CHF 60,500. Below CHF 10,100, you pay a minimum contribution of CHF 530. On top of the contributions, the compensation offices charge contributions toward administration costs "amounting to a maximum of 5 %" of the contributions.

Contributions are not a one-off bill. The compensation office sets contributions on account, provisional amounts based on your foreseeable income, paid quarterly and due by the 10th day after the end of each quarter (Q1, for instance, by 10 April). Your final contributions are then set on the basis of your tax assessment, and the difference is refunded or invoiced (payable within 30 days); late payment carries default interest of 5% p.a. If self-employment is a secondary occupation earning CHF 2,500 a year or less, contributions are collected only at your request.

One thing these contributions do not buy you: the leaflet states that "as a self-employed person, you are not insured against unemployment and are not subject to compulsory accident insurance. Nor are you subject to mandatory occupational pension provision." Insuring against any of those is your own choice, at your own cost. The leaflet describes no reduced rate for a business's first year, and we do not imply one.

A labelled worked example (our arithmetic). The income in the table is the income on which contributions are calculated: the compensation office deducts interest on the equity capital invested in the business, and adds your personal AHV/IV/EO contributions back to the net income shown on your tax assessment. Assume that figure is CHF 40,000 a year: it falls in the CHF 38,000–40,500 band, so the rate is 6.728% and the contribution CHF 2,691.20, plus administration costs of up to 5% — up to CHF 2,825.76 a year. At CHF 80,000, above the full-rate threshold, the contribution is 10.0%, CHF 8,000, plus up to 5% — up to CHF 8,400 a year. These are our own calculations on the leaflet's published rates at two stated incomes, not an official example; your compensation office sets the actual amount.

Health insurance: individual, not a business cost

Unlike AHV contributions, Swiss health insurance (KVG/LAMal) is not something your business pays — it is an individual premium you buy as a resident, varying by canton and by insurer. We did not research specific premium levels for this article, so none is quoted here; budget for it as a personal cost that sits alongside, not inside, your self-employed contributions.

The commercial register: mandatory from CHF 100,000, CHF 80 to enter

Under the Code of Obligations, a sole proprietorship must be entered in the commercial register once its revenue in the most recent financial year reaches at least CHF 100,000 (Art. 931(1)); members of the liberal professions and farmers who do not operate a commercial business are exempt. Below the threshold you are "nonetheless entitled to be registered" (Art. 931(3)). Either way, a sole proprietor "must use his family name, with or without first name, as the essential content of his business name" (Art. 945(1)). The fee for a new sole-proprietorship entry is CHF 80 under the federal commercial-register fee ordinance (Annex 1.1); we did not research other charges that may apply, so none are stated. The UID business identification number is allocated "free of charge" by the Federal Statistical Office (UID Act, Art. 4(1)).

Bookkeeping follows a revenue line too, set higher: sole proprietorships with less than CHF 500,000 of sales revenue in the last financial year "need only keep accounts on income and expenditure and on their asset position" (Art. 957(2)). Accounting records and vouchers must be retained for ten years from the end of the financial year, on paper or electronically, provided "they can be made readable again at any time" (Art. 958f).

VAT: exemption below CHF 100,000, three rates above it

The VAT Act (MWSTG/LTVA) exempts from tax liability anyone who "within one year generates on Swiss territory and abroad turnover from supplies of less than 100,000 francs" (Art. 10(2)(a)). The threshold counts turnover in Switzerland and abroad, not only domestic sales, and it is a separate rule from the commercial-register threshold above, which happens to use the same number. You have the right to waive the exemption; a waiver applies "for at least one tax period" (Art. 11). Once you are liable, the standard rate is 8.1% and the reduced rate 2.6% (Art. 25), with a special rate of 3.8% for accommodation services.

What a Swiss invoice has to contain once you are registered, and how the QR-bill fits into it, is covered in invoicing software.

Technology: the smallest and most controllable line

Compared with AHV contributions, the commercial register and VAT, the cost of the technology a new business buys in its first weeks — a domain, a mailbox, a website — is small, and it is the part you actually control. We walk through what to buy in week zero and what can wait in technology for a new business.