Provisions for the future

Yes, you can use savings from pillar 2 and your pillar 3a assets as seed capital when you found a sole proprietorship, a collective proprietorship or a limited partnership. However, this does not apply to an AG or a GmbH.

We recommend you don’t use all your retirement savings as seed capital when setting up a business. If your company fails to achieve the desired success, you could end up with a gap in your pension.

Since you remain subject to AHV, IV and EO contributions as an entrepreneur, you’re insured in terms of pillar 1. You can make voluntary contributions to pillar 2 on top of this, and decide whether or not to take out accident insurance.

It’s important to remember that there is no government-based unemployment insurance for people who are self-employed in their main job. You should therefore make sure you understand your rights and obligations in relation to the social insurance scheme.

You can’t protect yourself against every risk. Many companies nevertheless prepare for various scenarios – such as the need for additional financing or the unexpected departure of a business partner.

The earlier you consider the potential hurdles, the sooner you can protect yourself contractually or financially to ensure that your business can continue to operate unhindered.

Let’s be honest: none of us know how long we will be able to actively participate in life. Life and/or risk insurance can help you and your surviving dependents to reduce the financial trauma of death or disability.

An advance care directive lets you determine a person or persons you would trust to manage your affairs if you ever became unable to make decisions for yourself.

By defining clear areas of responsibility and specifying who should take care of them, you can simplify not only the continued existence of your company, but also your own living conditions.

Tax optimization is very complex, so we cannot give a blanket answer to this question. Depending on the amounts involved, it may be more advantageous from a tax point of view for the owners of a GmbH or AG to receive a higher salary and less dividends – this will ensure higher pension fund contributions.

You can obtain more information in our guides and from your tax advisor.

Yes, that’s correct, although you should still clearly separate the two. When you start out, it can make sense to pay yourself a small salary and reinvest your profits in the company. Companies generally pay lower taxes than private individuals.

However, if you hold a large amount of your working capital in your business over many years and would like to sell your company or liquidate it at the end of your working life, this one-time transfer of your business assets to your personal assets can cost you dearly in taxes.