A company & employee checklist to you run Swiss payroll

COMPANY CHECKLIST

1. UID Number - Companies should be registered in the commercial registry and should have a UID number. This does not apply to freelancers who do not need registration and can run payroll without a UID. Earny will pull your UID straight from the registry as you enter your name. Here is the commercial registry in Switzerland which showcases all registered companies - https://www.zefix.ch/en/hra. 
   

2. Family Compensation Fund - Companies should register with the compensation fund in their local canton and identify the specific company contributions required. There are also scenarios where employee contributions are required but Earny covers this for you. In Zurich for example, this is the compensation fund - https://svazurich.ch/. 
   

3. Withholding Number - If you have employees subject to withholding tax, you will need to contact your local canton for them to provide you your company’s withholding number. This number is used by Earny to transmit your withholding tax information on a monthly basis. In Zurich for example, this is the tax office - https://www.zh.ch/de/finanzdirektion/steueramt.html. 
   

4. AHV Number - Companies will be required to submit declarations to their local AHV office. Earny does this electronically on your behalf and requires you to procure your AHV number. This is the same office as the compensation fund. In Zurich, this would again be https://svazurich.ch/. 
   

5. Accident Insurance (Mandatory) - Each company needs to take out accident insurance to cover accidents in occupation and non occupation scenarios for their employees. Please contact an insurance provider like Axa or Zurich insurance or a broker like Qualibroker or Helvengo. 
   

6. Daily Sickness Insurance (Optional) - Companies have the option to take out daily sickness insurance that covers you in case of employees going on leave due to sickness. Please contact an insurance provider like Axa or Zurich insurance or a broker like Qualibroker or Helvengo. 
   

7. Additional accident Insurance (Optional) - Companies have the option to take out additional insurance that provides further coverage beyond the bare minimum required in the mandatory accident insurance bucket. 
   

8. Pension (Optional) - Pension is optional depending on your situation. If employees make less than 21,510 CHF per year or are under the age of 18 pension does not apply. In other cases, please contact a pension provider like SwissLife or broker like Qualibroker to secure pension rates. 
   

9. Vacation Policy - If you employ hourly employees, you will need to specify your vacation policy as this impacts the hourly rate of your employees as companies are required to pay a premium for vacation pay to hourly employees dependent on the companies vacation policy. Earny takes care of that for you once you specify the vacation policy. 
   

10. Company IBAN - You will be required to enter your company IBAN so that Earny can produce a payment XML to payout the required salaries each month. 

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EMPLOYEE CHECKLIST

1. AHV Number - Employees should input their AHV numbers into Earny. The company is responsible to an employee at the cantonal SVA office for the employee to receive an AHV number. The employer applies for the employee's AHV number after confirming receipt of the employee’s permit. 
   

2. Permit Status - Employees should have a permit if not a Swiss citizen. In payroll, this permit is required to identify if the employee is subject to withholding tax. As an EU national, the employee can apply for a residence permit from their municipality of residence in Switzerland before they can start gainful employment. For non EU Nationals, the future employer must take the necessary steps to obtain a work permit from the cantonal migration and labor market authorities.
   

3. IBAN - Employees are required to have a bank and therefore input their IBAN
   

4. Report Children - Employees with children are eligible to receive child allowances, education allowance and in some cases adoption allowances. An application needs to be put forth to your local cantonal authorities to specify how the employees will receive this payment either through the company or paid directly to the employee. 
   

5. Assign Allowances - If you provide any allowances to your employees such as car allowance, phone allowance or other allowances, you need to specify those and also advise us if they are canton approved or not. Canton approved allowances are not subject to taxation and appear similarly as an expense in an employee’s payslip.