You should proably start thinking about the type of structure you would like to use (corporation or partnership).

For a corporation (for example joint stock corporation - "société anonyme" or limited liability company - "société à responsabilité limitée"), the advantage is that it shows a structured approach (for the client) and limits your liability up to the amount of the equity of the company.

If you set up a partnership ("société en nom collectif", "raison individuelle",etc), the structure is less formal, but the partners are personally liable for the debts of the partnership.

In matter of taxes, the corporation will have to file a tax return. The revenues of the partners in the case of a partnership are integrated in the tax return of the individual partners.

Hello,

Sure, you are right, however once you have decided about the type of the structure- probably an "S.A.R.L", better strucutre then others! You must think of "E"- business construction phase, within Switzerland? i.e. how to protect the customer, copyright law, patent law, designlaw, the payments, government rules, how to be officially registered...

Thanks

Concerning the structure:

the 2 things to consider are start-up capital and liability. A 'societe anonyme' or partnership don't require start-up capital (you can register for about 50 Francs at the chamber of commerce), but you are personaly liable. That means that if you run into debts you cannot pay you are responsible for paying them with your life savings. A partnership is the same, but is for more than 1 owner (so you want to make sure you agree on how your liability is divided).

An SARL is different because you're only liable for the amount that you invested in the company. However, to start one you need to have a start-up investment of at least ~15000 Francs (not sure about exact amount). For many people this is not feasible, so the best choice is probably a societe anonyme, and don't go into any financial agreement that will put you at serious risk.

Concerning other legal issues:

I am not really familiar with them, but I think you named the main ones, plus you need to look into privacy laws and taxes. The Chamber of Commerce may be a good place to look for this info, though it may be hard to find it in English.

But none of this should worry you too much when you're setting up the web store. You need good terms and conditions (which you can copy  from other web stores and then change to make it suit your purpose).

If the company is located in Switzerland but consumers are international, then, it is a must to follow an international law for consumers rights! no? specially as you said, when using credit cards...

You can do one company in swiss, with 100.000chf capital, and its not necesary have the capital...cost 8.000chf, register company, fiducier,etc,etc

Ganna...if you want do one company and you dont have 100.000chf ( SA ), just tell me...i do 2 companies in swiss without capital...and the companies are LEGAL in the registre du commerce, and tvs,etcetc..

Everybody dont do that beacause everybody thimk its difficil and complicated..

Mainly, the future comapny will be based here in Switzerland, serving local purposes and international...i.e. all services will be provided within the country, which means, I am obliged officialy to have it in Switzerland- maybe Zoug is the best place(low tax)!

Do you think those are the steps to follow for registration?

1) Determine the company name and address

2) Request Federal Commercial Registry Office that your company name is unique

3) Apply at the same Commercial Register office in your canton, defining the scope of your business

4) Appoint founders

5) Draft Articles of Association

6) Open a capital deposit account at a registeres Swiss bank

7) Elect a board of directors

8) Appoint accountants and auditors

9) Domicile acceptance Statement

Mark, hello

you mean that you can do a comapny within Switzerland (SA), Just by paying 8,000 at the register de commerce and this is enough...you don't need the whole capital to be blocked at the bank?

You already did it?

Hello Rany,

you dont need blockeed the capital in the bank, i do 2 companies in 4 years in swiss..

And for do one SARL....You only need put 10.000chf in the bank...and when the registre du commerce give you one number company..you can take the money for buy the CAPITAL for the company..

How much do you think the time process is? like a week?

Is there any possibility to build a company in Switzerland without having a real office as it is e-business? or I am obliged?

Concerning your proposition: in your opinion 10'000CHF capital are enough to build an SARL company? It could be interesting

http://www.readymadecompaniesworldwide.com/shelf-companies/switzerland-ready-made-company.html

No, there is no such things as putting up an SA without the downpayment of part of the required 100K.

And no, you need 20K to creat an Sàrl. Part of it can be in kind, like Ganna says.

Useful information:

http://www.glocals.com/forums/general/Questions-about-starting-e-commerce-141109.htm

However, you don't really need a company to start selling stuff online, You can open an e-shop through www.ricardo.ch

I guess you need to master French to be able to do so:

http://shops.ricardo.ch/contents/ch/shops_content/PDF/conditions_utilisation01.pdf

Here is some information about how to generate sales with an e-shop:

http://www.salesconquest.com/en/e-commerce-consulting-introduction.html?_kk=swiss%20e-commerce&_kt=5e373fa8-aaa2-40a8-bf2e-7351e29c7c9b&gclid=CO2_5Kysqq4CFRR8fAodVDOwPw

Thank you M J,

unfortunately it is not somthing like what you have suggested: www.ricardo.ch it is more a real website

Well it looks great, it is not so much time.

Do you have any specific virtual comapny address? I could contact and check their offers, maybe as a startup, it could be interesting! who knows

For do one company in swiss you need 1 month, for do.( bank,register companies, tva, assurance,etc)

Open the links you were given and study them. There is tons of information.

probably most of the info you need is here:

http://www.gruenden.ch/en/

This is the link to a PDF containing the info in a readable format

http://www.gruenden.ch/fileadmin/customer/downloads_e/e_fullversion_gruenden2_112011.pdf

you can find info for non-swiss nationals, overview of the legal structures, checklist for setting up a company, incubators, technology parks etc.. etc..

Good Luck

You can get more information on http://secure.startups.ch/en

Hope that helps.

Thank you guys, I will check the links you proposed and come back as soon as possible,

I really appreciate,

Rany

the legal side is relatively simple and a very common process that every notaire can take you throgh. or do it directly, if you feel comfy enough, on:http://www.startups.ch/en/. It will cost a few thousand frances, however. 

my personal advice is to launch your business first before even registering a company, to see if it works and generates money. if you see the business works,  go and open a company. if it doesn't work, move to something else. this advice is not valid if your business is super high risk and you need to protect yourself legally from the 1st day, which is not the case for most businesses.

good luck!

Marcela.

Only your friends can see your profile.

You  might want to change that if you are trying to develop some business.

V, anything wrong with separating business from private life?

Yeh, Marcela...it is exactly what I have told you! Can't access to your profile

Hi guys,

sorry for dropping in the discussion...

I am thinking as well to set up some kind of business... by establishing something, that might be called "individual entreprise" as the legal form for conducting my business... well, I don´t know if that is the convenient word in english (it is called auto entreprise in french and Einzelunternehmen in german)... 

In case any of you guys, has some experience in the creation of that kind of entreprise, I would be very grateful, to discuss it... As well, to get more insight, about the technical aspects of managing a company (bank account, how to deal with all the payments) and last but not least, how to deal with the tax issue...

Of course, do not hesitate to write directly to my personal email box.... 

Thanks for your help!!!

Laurent

Laurent,

Since you are French you have quite good explonation in French on Geneva Guichet-PME website: https://ge.ch/ecoguichetpmepmi/content/création-dentreprise

you can download there Guide Createur Entreprise.pdf There might be some minor differences between Geneva and Zurich cantonal rules but 99% is applicable.

Hi All,

If anybody is interesting in creating a professional online portal, e-commerce portal let me know and i can quote the functions with a highly competitive price.

cheers

Aadish

0765113073

Just for the record, you have replied to a thread that is dated 2012.

R.

and the poster, Rany I's last visit to Glocals was on May, 2013, as indicated in his profile.

... and the post is a spam.

Romain P has only 1 post (this spammy one), zero friends, and zero activities in his 7 years of presence on Glocals. Most probably this profile is from a legitimate person who opened it for curiosity, abandoned it, and then was taken over by a hacker for spamming.