What a company files in Switzerland [CH]

Art. 699 CO sits in the chapter on the company limited by shares, so this record is written for the AG only. The corresponding provisions for the GmbH (Gesellschafterversammlung) and the Genossenschaft could not be read, because the consolidated text of the Code of Obligations could not be accessed; no deadline is asserted here for those forms. The accounting duty behind the meeting is stated by the Confederation's SME portal: «Aktiengesellschaften (AG) sind zur Buchhaltung und Rechnungslegung gemäss den im Obligationenrecht (OR 957 ff.) definierten Regeln verpflichtet.»

Extensions and exceptions: No extension of the six-month period is published in the provision read. The figure is indicative here only because the financial year end is chosen by the company and must be supplied by the user; the six months themselves are the statutory wording.

No date can be derived here. This deadline runs from something this page does not know — the financial year the company itself elects, or an event only you can date. What is published is the rule, not the day.

The Confederation's SME portal states that an AG is subject to the ordinary audit when it exceeds two of three thresholds in two consecutive financial years: «Bilanzsumme: CHF 20 Millionen», «Umsatz: CHF 40 Millionen», «Vollzeitstellen: 250». It then states: «Die übrigen unterliegen der eingeschränkten Revision. Sie können auch ganz auf eine Revision verzichten, wenn sie im Jahresdurchschnitt weniger als zehn Personen beschäftigen.» The single machine-readable threshold on this record is the balance-sheet total; the two-of-three test over two consecutive years cannot be expressed in one threshold object and is carried in this note. Whether a company below ten full-time positions can waive the audit also depends on conditions the portal does not set out on that page, which were not verified at source.

Extensions and exceptions: No deadline is published for the audit itself. The six months here are carried over from the deadline for the ordinary general meeting (Art. 699 para. 2 CO) and are a derived figure, not one published for this obligation. Treat it as the outer bound of the window in which the audit has to be finished for the accounts to be approved on time, not as a published date.

No date can be derived here. This deadline runs from something this page does not know — the financial year the company itself elects, or an event only you can date. What is published is the rule, not the day.

The act opens Art. 2 with «Die diesem Gesetz unterstellten Rechtseinheiten sind: a. folgende Gesellschaften: 1. Aktiengesellschaften…». On the reading obtained, the list also covers the partnership limited by shares, the GmbH, the cooperative, SICAV, SICAF and the limited partnership for collective investment; foreign legal entities with a Swiss branch, with actual management in Switzerland, or holding or acquiring Swiss real property; and trustees domiciled or seated in Switzerland or administering Swiss trusts, save those already covered by anti-money-laundering supervision. Excluded on the same reading are listed companies and their subsidiaries held above 75 per cent, occupational pension institutions, and entities more than 75 per cent publicly owned. The register's own site puts it as «Das Gesetz betrifft die Mehrheit der Unternehmen, die als juristische Person auftreten, wie AGs, GmbHs, Genossenschaften sowie weitere Rechtsformen». WARNING ON THE READING: Art. 2 was obtained through a converter as an analysis with only short verbatim fragments, not as a continuous quotation; the list of forms and especially the exclusions must be re-read against the act before any of them is relied on for a particular company.

Extensions and exceptions: The act enters into force on 1 October 2026 («Das Gesetz tritt am 1. Oktober 2026 in Kraft»), and the Federal Council states that the transitional periods for entering affected entities in the register start running from that date. For a newly registered company the report is due «innerhalb eines Monats nach der Eintragung der Gesellschaft in das Handelsregister» (Art. 9 para. 4), and any change to a registered fact must be reported «innerhalb eines Monats, nachdem sie davon Kenntnis erhalten hat» (Art. 10). For entities already in existence at entry into force, Art. 51 on the reading obtained gives: one month after the first change in the commercial register after entry into force; and in any event two years where all beneficial owners are already entered in the commercial register as members or officers, three months for an AG subject to the ordinary audit, four months for other entities subject to the ordinary audit, five months for an AG not subject to the ordinary audit, and six months for the remaining entities; Art. 53 gives six months for foreign entities. WARNING ON THE READING: the figures in Art. 51 and Art. 53 come from an analysis of the article, not from a verbatim quotation of each paragraph — they must be re-read against the act before a specific company is told which of them applies to it.

No date can be derived here. This deadline runs from something this page does not know — the financial year the company itself elects, or an event only you can date. What is published is the rule, not the day.

The ESTV states that a company based in Switzerland is in principle liable if it independently pursues a professional or commercial activity, acts under its own name towards the outside and is oriented towards sustainable income generation, and it gives the threshold «for companies not otherwise mentioned» as at least 100,000 Swiss francs of turnover from services within and outside Switzerland that are not tax-exempt. The same page states that a business may register voluntarily even where the turnover limit is not reached. Foreign businesses are dealt with on a separate ESTV page which was not read for this record, so nothing about them is asserted here. The 100,000 figure is a turnover threshold on the whole liability, not a threshold on the return: once registered, the return obligation applies whatever the turnover of the individual period.

Extensions and exceptions: The ESTV page read states that a newly formed domestic company registers when circumstances indicate it will reach the threshold within twelve months, and that an existing company crossing the threshold during a financial year registers after the end of the financial year in which the turnover limit is reached. No number of days for the registration itself is published on that page. Art. 66 of the VAT Act, which is commonly cited for a thirty-day period, was not read at source and is deliberately not used here; do not fill in a day count from elsewhere.

No date can be derived here. This deadline runs from something this page does not know — the financial year the company itself elects, or an event only you can date. What is published is the rule, not the day.

Applies to every person entered in the register of persons liable to VAT, for each reporting period. The length of the period follows the accounting method. Under the net tax rate method (Saldosteuersatzmethode), which the ESTV opens to a business whose «steuerbare Jahresumsatz (inkl. Steuer) darf nicht mehr als 5,024 Mio. Franken betragen» and whose «geschuldete Steuer darf nicht mehr als 108 000 Franken pro Jahr betragen», the ESTV states «Die Abrechnung erfolgt in der Regel halbjährlich». Annual reporting is available on application to «Unternehmen mit einem Jahresumsatz bis CHF 5'005'000», with the application due in the ePortal «bis spätestens 60 Tage nach Beginn der Steuerperiode (Ende Februar)». The ESTV describes annual reporting as an administrative relief «im Vergleich zur vierteljährlichen oder halbjährlichen Abrechnung», which is how the quarterly period is established here; a separate page stating quarterly reporting as the default under the effective method was not read, so the default is described and not asserted as a rule.

Extensions and exceptions: The ESTV states «Das Abrechnungsformular muss jeweils innert 60 Tagen nach Ablauf der entsprechenden Abrechnungsperiode unaufgefordert eingereicht werden» and, on the payment page, that the return must be submitted and paid within that period. An extension of the filing deadline can be obtained «bequem, rasch und kostenlos online im ESTV-Portal Service «MWST abrechnen»», and the electronic route is mandatory for extension requests — a request made outside the portal service cannot be granted. Under annual reporting the return is «bis Ende Februar des folgenden Jahres eingereicht und bezahlt», with instalments set by the ESTV: three instalments on 30 May, 30 August and 30 November under the effective and flat-rate methods, and one instalment on 30 August under the net tax rate method. The 60 days are counted from the end of the reporting period, which is a calendar period and not the company's financial year.

No date can be derived here. This deadline runs from something this page does not know — the financial year the company itself elects, or an event only you can date. What is published is the rule, not the day.

Applies to legal entities taxable in the canton. THE DEADLINE IS CANTONAL, NOT FEDERAL: each canton sets it, and only the canton of Zurich was read for this record. Do not carry the Zurich date to another canton. Zurich publishes the date in an annual directive rather than as an offset from the financial year end, so the deadline for a company whose financial year does not end on 31 December is the same calendar date as for one whose year does — which is why this record is written on a fixed basis and not as an offset.

Extensions and exceptions: Canton of Zurich, for a legal entity whose business year ended during the 2026 calendar year: «Die Steuererklärung ist, gemeinsam mit den erforderlichen Beilagen gemäss § 134 Abs. 2 StG, bis 30. September 2027 dem Kantonalen Steueramt Zürich, Abteilung Register, einzureichen.» That is the 30 September of the year following the calendar year in which the financial year closed, which is what the fixed date on this record expresses. An extension to 30 November can be requested online by 30 September; an extension beyond 30 November has to be applied for by post and is granted only in exceptional cases where extraordinary grounds exist. Requests must be made before the deadline expires, and an extension granted by the entity's home canton also applies in Zurich if it is communicated before the Zurich deadline. Where liability in the canton ends during the year — relocation abroad, completion of a liquidation — the return is due «innert 30 Tagen nach Zustellung der Formulare». The record is marked indicative because the date is cantonal, only one canton was read, and Zurich restates it in a fresh directive each year.