Moving back to Ticino: Optimizing a new Sagl/GmbH

Investing / Others
1

Hi everyone,

I am moving back to Switzerland (holding a C Permit) and setting up my business in Canton Ticino.

Based on my situation, a sole proprietorship seems like a bad move: I’ll start with 2 main clients (maybe more later, but SVA/AHV might flag the “scheinselbständig” / pseudo-independent status with just 2 clients), I want to avoid unlimited personal liability, and the progressive income tax would hit hard. So, a GmbH (Sagl) is definitely the way to go.

Expected revenue for Year 1 is around CHF 250k – 300k, with expected growth from Year 2.

My initial plan is to optimize for tax efficiency, wealth building, and maximizing deductions. I’d love to get the community’s feedback on finding the absolute sweet spot between salary, dividends, and corporate reserves.

Here is my target setup:

  • Salary: Pay myself around CHF 140k gross.

  • Corporate Address: Register the company at my home address to write off a portion of the rent, internet, and utilities.

  • Business Expenses: Deduct extensive professional training, high-end equipment, and typical business meals/travel.

  • Company Car: Take a nice executive car on a corporate leasing plan.

  • 2nd Pillar Optimization: I want to maximize my pension contributions. Since I spent several years in university, I plan to leverage buy-ins to clear my historical contribution gaps and aggressively lower my personal taxable income.

  • Dividends / Retained Earnings: Distribute some dividends (dividend taxation in Ticino is good?) and retain the rest in the company for future business projects and potentially investing via a corporate broker.

  • Banking: I need to open a corporate account for the capital deposit and daily operations. I know IFJ offers a promotion with PostFinance, but I am leaning towards UBS for long-term stability and a stronger network.

My questions for the Mustachian community:

  1. The Salary vs. Dividend Sweet Spot: Is CHF 140k a solid baseline for a 250k-300k revenue stream? If I pay myself too little, Ticino’s tax authority might complain about a non-commercial salary (AVS evasion), but if I pay too much, I hit high tax brackets. What is the optimal ratio here considering Ticino’s specific corporate vs. personal tax rates?

  2. 2nd Pillar Buy-ins via GmbH: Has anyone successfully executed massive buy-ins for university years through their own GmbH? Are there specific pitfalls with the pension fund setup I should look out for?

  3. DIY Accounting & Bexio: My initial accounting variables will be very low (just 2 main clients invoicing monthly, a few expense receipts, and one employee—me). Is Bexio advanced/easy enough to do this entirely on my own for Year 1?

  4. Fiduciary Costs: I’ve been quoted up to CHF 7,000/year by some local accountants for full management, which feels highly for a single person setup. What is a realistic rate in Ticino if I do the day-to-day entries in Bexio and just hire a fiduciary for the year-end closing and VAT (IVA) filing?

  5. Incorporation: I’m planning to use services like Startups ch or IFJ to incorporate. Any major pros/cons or alternatives I should consider?

  6. Corporate Banking & Investment Loans: Incorporating via IFJ, it could takes advantage of their free incorporation deal with PostFinance. However, I’m personally leaning towards UBS. Do you know if UBS currently offers any competitive startup packages or promotions that waive fees for the first year? More importantly, since I plan to ask for corporate loans down the line for expensive professional equipment and investment projects, which bank is generally more flexible and entrepreneurial-friendly for a young GmbH? Is the PostFinance deal a trap in terms of long-term flexibility for credit?

Looking forward to your numbers-driven insights! Thanks a lot.

2

Some input based on the experience with my own Own GmbH:

  1. Accounting & Fiduciary Services: I am using GNUCash which is free and offers all the functionality you need. There is a little bit of a learning curve but ChatGPT will support you with setting-up the account structures & the bookings. All recurring bookings can be scheduled. Works very well for me. I also do all the tax reporting, VAT, and so on, on my own. Again. ChatGPT is here of excellent help and I had in the last years not one topic the tax authorities did not accept or had questions.
  2. Banking: I did initially also use Post Finance. But did switch to another bank in the meantime. They are simply too expensive from my point of view and there are cheaper alternatives. I did however not need any loans.
  3. Salary vs. Dividend: As a rule of thumb you need 1.6 to 2.0 time the salary you pay as revenue. In my case the ratio is more favourable as I need zero external services/have a very low cost base.
  4. 2nd Pillar: This one of the biggest lever you have if setting-up your own company. I clearly would invest some time in thinking through how much contributions you want to make and find an appropriate pension fund you can join. You need to create clarity here first.
  5. Company Benefits: I have introduced a company policy defining all the benefits I get from the company. This is based on “Kreisschreiben Nr. 37 der ESTV”. I did just ask ChatGPT to write a policy that maximises benefits within this frame. I shared the policy with the tax authorities who accept it.

Hope this helps.

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