Payroll & social insurance
Outsourced payroll, on time at a fixed fee.
Payroll in Switzerland catches most foreign parent companies off guard: compulsory social insurance handled by several separate institutions, monthly withholding tax filings for employees without a C permit and for people resident abroad, such as cross-border commuters, and an electronic reporting standard that requires a certified product version. clever hr runs the full cycle for your Swiss entity in English. Before an electronic Swissdec ELM filing, we check the exact product version against the current official Swissdec list. You pay CHF 250 per month plus CHF 25 to 40 per employee, year-end work included, with a one-off setup fee of CHF 490. You remain the legal employer, and we run the payroll.
Scope
Scope.
Monthly payroll run with an individual payslip per employee and a ready-to-upload payment file for your bank
Social insurance contributions calculated and filed: AHV, IV and EO (the state old-age, disability and loss-of-earnings insurance schemes), ALV (unemployment), BVG (occupational pension) and UVG (accident insurance)
Withholding tax calculated every month and filed with the canton in charge of each employee, including tariff changes after marriage, a birth or a change in employment level
Child and family allowances, together with salary changes for joiners and leavers and any adjustments during the year
Year-end work: salary certificates, the annual AHV declaration and the withholding tax and accident insurance statements
Electronic reporting through Swissdec ELM after the specific product version is checked against the official certification list, plus data processing under the revised Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection
How it works
What to expect.
- Setup: we register your company and your employees, arrange your social insurance affiliations and load your existing salary data (one-off CHF 490)
- Each month you send us only what has changed, such as hours, expenses, joiners and leavers, by email or by phone
- We calculate the salaries, check every deduction and send you the payslips and the payment file for approval
- We file the mandatory reports with the compensation office, the insurers and the cantonal tax authorities
- At year end we produce the salary certificates and all annual statements within the statutory deadlines
Your fee or offer
CHF 250/month base fee + CHF 25 to 40 per employee/month
The per-employee rate depends on the complexity of your organisation and is agreed transparently before we start. Year-end work is included. One-off setup: CHF 490. Combined with HR administration you receive a 7.5% bundle discount.
All fees exclude VAT.
Talk to us about thisWho it is for: For companies that want their Swiss payroll done accurately and on schedule, without building up in-house expertise or buying payroll software.
Outcome
What changes for you.
Your payroll runs correctly and on time every month. Before Swissdec filing, the specific product version is checked against the official certification list. Nobody on your side has to keep track of contribution rates, cantonal deadlines or filing formats. You get one named contact who answers in English and a monthly cost you can budget a year ahead.
Cost calculator
What will your payroll cost?
Complexity of your organisation
Some movement: hourly wages, changes or withholding tax.
Base fee CHF 250 + 10 × CHF 30
We agree the right package with you during the intro call, transparently and before any contract.
Request a fixed-fee quoteFrequently asked questions
Payroll & salary accounting in brief.
What does outsourced payroll cost?
CHF 250 per month as a base fee plus CHF 25 to 40 per employee, depending on the complexity of your organisation, with all year-end work included. Setup is a one-off CHF 490. A team of ten at the standard complexity level comes to CHF 550 a month, and you can work out your own figure with the calculator on this page. We confirm the complexity level with you before the first payroll run. Take HR administration as well and you receive a 7.5% bundle discount.
How does Swiss payroll differ from payroll in our home country?
Employer and employee share the contributions, which go to several separate institutions. AHV, IV and EO, the state old-age, disability and loss-of-earnings insurance schemes, take 10.6% of gross salary, half from the employer and half from the employee. Unemployment insurance (ALV) adds a further 2.2%, and the occupational pension (BVG) and accident cover (UVG) come on top of that. Before the first salary is paid, every Swiss employer registers with a compensation office (Ausgleichskasse), the body that collects the AHV contributions. Each employer also joins a pension fund and takes out accident cover, and we handle those registrations for your Swiss entity.
Who takes care of withholding tax?
We do. Employees without a C permit, and people resident abroad such as cross-border commuters, are taxed at source, so the employer works out the tax every month and files it with the canton where the employee lives or works. Tariff codes shift with marriage, a birth, a second income or a move across a cantonal border, and each canton sets its own rates and its own filing deadline. We track those changes and file every month. That monthly rhythm matters most for teams with cross-border commuters.
Can we keep our group payroll system?
Often. We first check the exact product version against the current official Swissdec list. Swissdec is the Swiss reporting standard: salary data is entered once and transmitted electronically in a single submission to the AHV compensation office, the accident insurer, the cantonal tax authorities and the Federal Statistical Office. If your group system cannot handle Swiss filing, we select a suitable currently listed product version for the local payroll and deliver the figures your headquarters needs for consolidation.
Further reading
30 minutes on your HR.
Book an intro callNo obligation, with the scope and price agreed before work starts.