Company Formation in Switzerland

At a Glance

• Minimum capital — CHF 20,000 (GmbH) or CHF 100,000 (AG, CHF 50,000 paid in)
• Timeline — 2–8 weeks from KYC to Handelsregister entry
• Swiss double-tax treaty network — 100+ jurisdictions
• Effective combined corporate rate — ~11.85% (Zug) to ~19.65% (Zurich)

What You Actually Need

The mandatory ingredients are short. Everything else is optimisation.

• A registered office in a specified Swiss canton (Article 626 CO)
• Minimum capital — CHF 20,000 for a GmbH, CHF 100,000 for an AG
• At least one director or manager resident in Switzerland with single-signature authority (Article 718 paragraph 4 CO)
• Articles of association notarised in Switzerland
• Filing with the cantonal Handelsregister
• KYC and beneficial-ownership disclosure under AMLA / GwG

Where to Incorporate

Switzerland has 26 cantons. Four dominate holding and operating-company structuring conversations. The right pick depends on whether you want operational substance, the lowest effective rate, or membership of an established cluster. The comparison table below is the shortcut — click through to the canton page that matches your priority.

Entity Types: GmbH vs AG vs Branch

GmbH (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) — CHF 20,000 capital, simpler governance, founder-friendly. The default for SMEs and most international setups. AG (Aktiengesellschaft) — CHF 100,000 capital (CHF 50,000 paid in at incorporation), more flexible governance, registry-level shareholder anonymity, the right vehicle when you intend to raise external capital or list shares. Branch (Zweigniederlassung) — a Swiss branch of a foreign company. Lower setup cost, but your foreign parent retains direct legal exposure. Rarely the right answer for tax-driven structuring; sometimes useful for distribution or representative offices.

What We Handle

Most providers stop at registration. We handle the structure from the pre-incorporation call through to ongoing statutory accounts — with internal Swiss-resident director infrastructure, not outsourced contractors. One firm, one scope, one point of contact.

• Pre-incorporation structuring call
• Articles of association drafted to your structure
• Capital deposit, notary coordination, Handelsregister filing
• Internal Swiss-resident director with signing authority
• Registered office in your chosen canton
• Bank account opening assistance
• VAT, AHV, withholding-tax registrations
• Ongoing accounting, statutory accounts, AGM, corporate secretarial

Process and Timeline

A typical Swiss formation completes in 2–8 weeks from KYC to Handelsregister entry. The sequence is predictable; the variable is the bank. Week 1 — KYC, beneficial-ownership documentation, structuring call. We draft articles of association and shareholder resolutions in parallel. Week 2 — Capital deposit into a Swiss escrow account. Notarisation (in person in Switzerland or by power of attorney with apostille from your home jurisdiction). Week 3 — Handelsregister filing. Entry typically appears within 5–10 working days of submission. Weeks 3–8 — Bank-account opening. This is the bottleneck. Swiss bank onboarding for foreign-owned entities now routinely takes 4–6 weeks of compliance review. Starting bank conversations during week 1, not after Handelsregister entry, is what compresses the overall timeline. What extends it: incomplete KYC packages, complex ownership chains crossing high-risk jurisdictions, unusual business activities (crypto, gambling, defence), or insistence on a tier-1 cantonal bank that is not a fit for the profile.

Pricing Approach

Government fees (notary, Handelsregister, capital movement, Stempelsteuer) are largely fixed and we pass through at cost. Our service fees are quoted upfront after a structuring call. We deliberately do not publish price lists because the correct scope depends on the structure — quoting a number before understanding the structure is a way to under-deliver later.

Common Founder Mistakes

— Picking the wrong canton at incorporation and discovering the cost of moving later. — Picking GmbH when AG was right (or vice versa). — Using a "rent-a-director" arrangement that fails the first time it is tested. — Treating the registered office as a mailbox. — Underestimating bank-onboarding KYC time. — Missing VAT registration when worldwide turnover with Swiss connection exceeds CHF 100,000.

Canton Comparison — Where to Incorporate

*Indicative federal + cantonal + communal rates on ordinary corporate profit. Holdings benefiting from the participation exemption have a much lower effective rate on qualifying flows.

Frequently Asked Questions