Establishing your company in Lucerne
You need to consider the following before deciding on a corporate form for your new business:
Capital: the corporate form you decide upon will in large part determine your start-up costs, capital requirements and statutory minimum capital. You also need to be thinking about the capital intensity of the business once it is up and running and its foreseeable capital requirements over the ensuing three to five years.
Risk/liability: there are big differences between them. As a general rule of thumb, the greater the risk or the higher your financial investment, the more you should be considering a corporate form that limits your liability.
Autonomy: again, the corporate form you settle on will determine your room for manoeuvre. Think about whether you want to go it alone or in the company of partners, and whether you want capital providers pure and simple or would prefer investors to come aboard and help shape the business. And another thing: to what extent does your product or service depend on you personally?
Taxation: once again, the corporate form you choose will determine the levels of taxation and the extent to which the taxman sees the earnings and assets of the business and its proprietors as separate or commingling. High profits earned by limited liability companies tend to be taxed less than partnerships or sole proprietorships.
Social security: certain levels of social insurance cover are mandatory, optional or do not apply, depending on the corporate form you decide upon. For instance, sole proprietors are not insured against unemployment, and they don't have to take out a pension. In the case of an AG or GmbH, the managing directors are viewed as being employees of the company and are therefore covered by social insurances.
Corporate forms: The joint-stock company (Aktiengesellschaft - AG) and the limited liability company (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung - GmbH) are the corporate forms most commonly used in Switzerland. You also find the general partnership (Kollektiv- gesellschaft), private limited partnership (Kommanditgesellschaft) and sole proprietorship.
Duration of the process: You need to allow two to four weeks for the start-up process itself (counting from the time you submit the application). The process can be speeded up in the event of a pressing need.
Start-up costs: These include professional advice and registration costs, and can run to anything between CHF 500 and CHF 5000, depending on the corporate form. Having the business name entered in a cantonal trade register can cost a few more hundred francs.
Please contact our network partners direct for more details on start-up costs, and the pros and cons of the various corporate forms.
